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It’s Daryll Clark’s team now.
Nobody’s battling him for his job anymore.
Nobody’s questioning if he has what it takes to become a big-time quarterback in a tough conference like the Big Ten.
And nobody’s wondering if he’s really the right one to lead a sagging Penn State football program back to greatness.
“The confidence,” Clark said, “is at an all-time high.”
It should be.
Clark didn’t just pop onto the scene last season, he pushed a detonator on it.
And Penn State’s offense exploded.
In his first season as the Nittany Lions starting quarterback, Clark threw for 2,592 yards. He ran for 282 more. He scored 10 rushing touchdowns and passed for 19 more as a dangerous double-threat. He completed 59.8 percent of his passes and averaged 3.6 yards per rushing attempt – an amazing number considering yardage lost on sacks is also figured in.
By the end of his junior 2008 season, Clark was named the best quarterback in the Big Ten and was a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien and Maxwell Awards.
He had Penn State talking about a perfect season, which ultimately finished at 10-2 with a loss to USC in the Rose Bowl.
But it was far from near-perfect to Clark.
“I have to be the guy that steps up more and has to be a leader this year,” Clark said.
That’s what Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his son Jay, the team’s quarterbacks coach, keep telling Clark.
Imagine that.
In one season, Clark became a team captain and the guy with the keys to No. 8 Penn State’s national championship hopes.
Last season, he wasn’t sure if he’d even get to ride in the car.
Because Clark entered the 2008 preseason dueling with highly touted Pat Devlin for Penn State’s quarterback job.
“At this time last year, I didn’t know if I was going to start,” Clark said.
Just before last season’s opener, Clark was named the starter. Just before the Rose Bowl, Devlin announced his transfer to the University of Delaware, as he rarely got on the field for Penn State.
Clark was that good.
“Coach Joe (Paterno) would tell me before every game, ‘Just play within yourself. Do what you can do,’ ” Clark said.
Now the Nittany Lions are asking Clark to do more.
He doesn’t have an experienced offensive line to protect him now, his receiving targets will be tall instead of acrobatic this time, and his quiet demeanor will have to get loud. But his certainty in his capabilities and those of his team is chiseled from the proof he delivered through a whole season under suspicion a year ago.
“I can’t wait until September 5,” Clark said of Saturday’s noon opener against Akron. “It’s cool to be mentioned (in rankings) in the beginning. Is it (the PSU program) on its way up, back to where it needs to be, on the national stage? If we prepare, if we work hard, there’s no doubt we’ll be in the same situation we were last year.”
That’s a position that may throw the Nittany Lions into the conversation about who’s number one. They’d only be following their leader.