Penn State's early progress looks patchy

By any measuring stick, the grades for Penn State's opening 31-7 win over Akron should go down as incomplete considering the caliber of its opponent, its scoreless second half, and the inconsistency of some areas the Nittany Lions have rebuilt.

But rating those rebuilt areas after one game is a good way to measure progress since the Lions' next two opponents - Syracuse on Saturday, Temple on Sept. 19 - aren't expected to provide much more of a test than Akron did.

Wide receivers: Penn State impressed the most in this area. Derrick Moye, Chaz Powell, and Graham Zug combined for 18 receptions, 265 yards, and 3 touchdowns to ease the minds of the faithful who have dreaded the losses of Deon Butler, Derrick Williams, and Jordan Norwood since the end of last season.

"We wanted to go out and show everybody that we could play," Zug said. "We just used [the criticism] as fuel. It makes us work harder so we can have people believe in us."

The 6-foot-5 Moye, who combines size with speed, gives the Nittany Lions a new dimension, as he showed when he reached up and plucked Daryll Clark's 22-yard touchdown pass away from a shorter defender.

The Lions are sure to go up against better, more physical, and perhaps even taller defensive backs as the season proceeds. But they're off to a good start.

Offensive line: The unit, with three new starters and with the two holdovers playing new positions, did a decent job of protecting Clark (one sack), but on rushing plays it was unable to budge a defense that was stacked up to stop the run.

"I thought we were very ordinary in the running game," coach Joe Paterno said. "Overall, I thought it was all right. We weren't dominant, and then again, without making excuses, we saw some things in there we had not really practiced a lot against."

Tackle Dennis Landolt feels the line will get better as it gains experience.

"We'll learn from the mistakes we made," said the graduate of Holy Cross High in Delran. "We'll feel a little more together, and we'll have some more film on Syracuse to watch for next week. We'll be more prepared."

Secondary: With three first-time starters, the defensive backfield benefited from the front four's manhandling of Akron's offensive line. It received unfortunate notice when Deryn Bowser got behind safety Nick Sukay in the third quarter for the Zips' only touchdown.

"We did OK," defensive coordinator Tom Bradley said. "There's a lot of room for improvement."

Sophomore Andrew Dailey, playing as a fifth defensive back in the nickel, made Penn State's only interception. He also gained 37 yards on a nifty fake punt that set up a second-quarter field goal.

Kicking game. Junior Collin Wagner had a disappointing debut taking over for Kevin Kelly, missing field-goal attempts of 28 and 49 yards.

"He's better than that," Paterno said. "He has a little better leg than Kelly had. He's got to go out there and have confidence in himself."

Not much happened in the return game. The Lions returned only one of Akron's seven punts. Freshman scatback Devon Smith was bottled up on his two kickoff runbacks.

Backup quarterback. Even though the Lions were in control throughout the second half, freshman Kevin Newsome played only the final 2 minutes, 18 seconds. He rushed twice for 12 yards and completed 3 of 4 passes for 26 yards.

"We were flopping around all over the place, so I didn't want to put him in there where he couldn't have success," Paterno said. "I think he had enough success to feel pretty good about himself."