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A crowd as big as any that ever surrounded Michael Robinson or Zack Mills or Anthony Morelli shoved their tape recorders and cameras within inches of Clark's face.
Like everything else last week, Clark handled it fine.
"The time is now," he said. "I think we have a real special thing going."
It could indeed be a special offense. Clark completed 11 of 14 passes for 146 yards in a 66-10 blowout.
Granted, all that was against hopeless competition. More important was the presence Clark seemed to show, and the seamless precision with which everything worked when the Lions had the ball.
Just one barometer: Penn State didn't come close to committing a turnover.
"I think the one thing we went into the game with, was the idea that we weren't going to turn the ball over," coach Joe Paterno said. "To me, that would be the best thing we did."
Clark is exceptionally good in interviews. His answers are thoughtful and articulate. He comes off as exceptionally … earnest. That's the word.Away from the football field, he wears thick-framed glasses and looks a bit like Raj from the old sitcom, "What's Happening?"
Raj was not a jock, and at least in terms of personality, the personality the public sees, Clark is not much like Michael Robinson, Clark's friend and Penn State's QB during the watershed 2005 season.
Robinson was just as articulate, but an ebullient charmer. Clark isn't that, at least not yet.
Of course, his teammates see a side of him we don't.
"Before the game, he's a clown," senior receiver Deon Butler said. "He was laughing and joking (Saturday), which is a good thing."
Especially since Clark had a lot of balls in the air this week. He learned Monday, from Paterno, that after a two-year apprenticeship he had beaten out Pat Devlin for the starting QB job. Devlin admits he struggled with that for a day or two. In his media teleconference Tuesday, Devlin paused for a long while before addressing a question about him possibly transferring.
Clark and Devlin have by all accounts been friends. They'll be together in countless meeting and film sessions over the coming months, and will be roommates on the road.
Clark acknowledged being nervous about it, at least until they got together to study Coastal Carolina video Friday
(899) (182) (108) (63) (62) (59) (53) (47) (36) (24) (23) (10) (7) (5) (2) (2)"I know we're still friends; I know that for a fact," Clark said. "I thought it was going to be awkward, but it wasn't. You know, we're cool."
Nit notes: The 66 points were the most Penn State has scored in a season opener since getting past mighty Susquehanna (the school, not the river) 82-0 in 1926. That's before JoePa was born.
Last year's opener was a bigger blowout, 59-0 over Florida International or, as Paterno referred to it, "Florida Institute."
Silver lining dept.: Coastal Carolina received a reported $450,000 for showing up.
Manheim Central's Graham Zug and Brett Brackett, both redshirt sophomores, each saw considerable action Saturday, but Brackett is evidently emerging as Penn State's fourth wide receiver. He actually started Saturday, with usual WR starter Derrick Williams lined up in the backfield for the Lions' first offensive play.
Sixteen redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen — RB Brandon Beachum, DE Jack Crawford, OL DeOn'tae Pannell and LB Mike Mauti —played for Penn State Saturday. Burning the redshirts of Crawford and Mauti makes sense because the coaches are trying to develop depth in their position-groups, both can contribute on special teams and Mauti, like Beacham, graduated from high school early and enrolled in January.
Pannell and Beacham are harder to figure. The o-line is one of Penn State's most experienced groups. Several starters and second-stringers can play more than one position, and a 300-pound plowhorse like Pannell won't help much on special teams. It seems almost imposible that Pannell will contribute when it counts this year.
Beacham played special teams Saturday and got eight carries for 44 yards and a touchdown. But he's listed as the fifth string tailback on the depth chart, and ahead of him are two guys with three more years of eligibility (Evan Royster and Brent Carter) and two with four more (Stephfon Green and Joe Suhey).
Since Florida State was idle last weekend, Paterno has tied Bobby Bowden for career major-college coaching wins at 373.
Joe's reaction was about what it always is.
"I can only say it so many times," he said. "It's not a big deal to me. I just can't seem to get that across."
A couple of rules changes designed to speed up the game debuted last week: A 40-second clock starts as soon as the ball is ruled dead. The ball must be spotted by the official and ready for play within 20 seconds, and the game clock starts as soon as the ball is spotted.
Saturday's game was played in exactly three hours, pretty good for a televised game. Except that both teams ran the ball more than they passed it, there was only one turnover, a modest 76 yards in penalties, and the Big Ten Network, which televised the game, runs fewer commercials than ESPN or ABC.
In short, the jury's still out on whether the changes will shorten games.
E-mail: mgross@lnpnews.com
