The report out of Happy Valley today is that the quarterback race in Happy Valley is now down to three options. The news is that True Freshmen Paul Jones was told he will be red-shirting the 2010 season. To some this might be a big surprise, as Mr. Jones was the highlight of the recent Blue-White game, throwing a pair of TD passes and really being the only highlight of the game from an offensive perspective.
But the story out of fall practice is that Jones needs a bit of time to mature his passing progression and build his physical stature (he came in as most freshman do, smaller and thinner than a player who has had a full year of eating and lifting, college-style). And let’s be honest we have a complete log jam at QB right now, so it was time we narrowed this down a bit.
Now, the rest of the story is that for all intensive purposes none of the remaining QB’s have been able to separate themselves from the crowd. I am sure most Penn State fans would have thought that the stud 4-star recruit in Redshirt Freshmen Kevin Newsome would be the clear leader of the pack by now, but that is not the case.
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In fact, the stories coming out of camp is that the only remaining True Freshmen, Robert Bolden is the showing the most promise. While he obviously has the least amount of experience, when it comes to time inside the Penn State system, he is steadily improving from practice to practice and is showing a level of progression higher than the other two options. In fact the #2, if you were to rank them right now, would be the former walk-on and Redshirt Freshmen Matt McGloin. That would make Mr. Newsome #3 on the current depth chart.
Now, based on my sources (which have close ties to Offensive Coordinator Galen Hall), it is very common for Penn State to promote a younger QB to the ‘first team’ early in the fall practice session. Penn State does this for two main reasons, first to build the confidence of the younger, less experienced QB, and second to create a force of additional motivation for the older, more experienced QB’s.
Again, my sources tell me that even though Mr. Newsome is currently not receiving the most rave reviews out of fall practice, it would be a modern miracle if he is not starting come the opening game. Kevin Newsome has the type of body and physical skill set that will fit well into the type of run-first, option-second and throw-third offense which Penn State plans to run this year. And to be honest, whoever starts at QB at Penn State has four games to get adjusted to real-time action of college footbal, prior to the real season (the beginning of the Big Ten schedule) begins.
I know we are all very excited for the second game of the year at Alabama, but this is not a conference game and we will have a very fragile minded QB, therefore Coach Paterno is going to play things very close to the vest. He will count on the defense, special teams (which is scary considering the last few years debacle we have had on that portion of our game) and a consistent running game to win this game. Passing will be few and far between as he will not want to risk destroying a new QB’s confidence so early in the season. Let’s just hope we keep the game close.
That is the latest out of Happy Valley, so until next time.
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