Penn State's Bolden already thinking about next year

DALLAS - After an especially humbling ending to a tumultuous and often agonizing season, Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno sought out a man who seemed to have the weight of his team, if not the world, on his shoulders.

Paterno had a message for sophomore quarterback Rob Bolden, who had just suffered through a horrendous performance in the Nittany Lions' 30-14 loss to Houston in yesterday's TicketCity Bowl.

A message of hope.

"I just told Rob, 'Look, you've got a great future ahead of you,' " said Paterno, whose own future, like that of the entire Penn State coaching staff, is anything but certain. " 'I'd like to be the guy to coach you, but whatever happens, happens. You've got to keep pressing forward.'

"He did make some really good throws and did some things really well . . . So I think he's got to keep that in perspective. Quarterbacks can take games like this very hard and very personally, but a lot of things could have been better for us."

Bolden was one of those things. Starting in place of Matt McGloin, who is still recovering from a concussion suffered in a Dec. 17 postpractice fight with receiver Curtis Drake, Bolden struggled in every aspect of the game, completing a mere seven of 26 passes for 137 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions, and rushing six times for 16 yards. He was at the helm of an offense that sputtered to 115 first-half yards and didn't record a first down until the second quarter, after four consecutive three-and-outs.

By then, the Lions already trailed 17-0 and Bolden was faced with the hopeless task of keeping pace with Houston's jet-fueled passing attack.

"It's tough. It was definitely frustrating," Bolden said of watching Cougars quarterback Case Keenum light up the defense for 532 passing yards. "There's nothing you can do. You've just got to watch. When we got the ball, I just wanted to make plays, just like everybody else. We just didn't make the plays."

While Keenum and the Cougars soared, Bolden seemed overwhelmed by the speedy Houston defense, which crowded the line of scrimmage to stop the run and forced Bolden to beat it.

He couldn't. While he had little help from a running game that was ineffective for much of the day - Penn State averaged 3.8 yards per rush - and receivers who dropped several of the accurate passes he threw, Bolden's sometimes-ugly throws and poor decisions were major parts of the problem.

"We knew they were going to try to run the ball," Houston linebacker Marcus McGraw said. "We wanted to get them into third-and-long, second-and-long, make them start passing the ball a little bit knowing they had their second-string quarterback in."

The good news, Paterno said, was that Bolden kept his poise as the situation crumbled around him.

"He's a very intense competitor," Paterno said. "You never got to the point where you worried he might be taking it too hard, until the end, when he got down a little bit. Rob's a fierce competitor and he was anxious to keep getting back in the game and making plays."

And Bolden did make a few, notably a 43-yard bomb to Devon Smith that set up the Lions' first touchdown and a deep post that zipped just past Houston's Phillip Steward and hit Justin Brown right in stride for a 69-yard score.

Those plays, Bolden said, reminded him of what he is capable of and why he was considered a big-time recruit coming out of Orchard Lake, Mich. Which is why he left with his confidence undented.

"I have the ability to make any pass or any run," he said. "I'm a good quarterback. I'm definitely going to improve. I'm still confident. I know I can make every throw or do anything . . . I feel like I handled myself pretty well, but it was hit or miss there. Some balls I wish I had back, but there were some balls that could have been caught. You never know what's going to happen, but I think I did pretty well."

By the end, though, Bolden was relegated to significant time lined up at wide receiver while Bill Belton operated out of the Wildcat formation, and interim coach Tom Bradley said he considered replacing Bolden with Shane McGregor for the final minutes.

Bradley decided against that, he said, because, "I thought it wouldn't be the right thing do to Rob for next season."

Bolden said he is unsure about his return, but the uncertainty surrounding the coaching situation has him both nervous and "excited."

"It's nagging at me," said Bolden, who added that he hopes Bradley gets the job. "But that's the situation I'm in. We'll be all right.

"Now that this game's over and the outcome isn't what we wanted, we've got to take it and move on to next year."