His QB days behind him, Brackett catches on at WR for Penn State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - If Brett Brackett hadn't been redshirted in 2006, and if Notre Dame's All-America wide receiver had been a little bit shorter, things might have turned out completely different for Brackett, who went to Penn State with the idea of playing quarterback.

But the 6-6 Brackett wasn't dressing for games anyway, and the Nittany Lions had a road date at Notre Dame coming up, and the Fighting Irish had a 6-5 All-America wideout named Jeff Samardzija, and, well . . . fate has a way of taking as many funny bounces as a wet football.

When Brackett was asked to switch positions and emulate Samardzija on the scout team, he did so without hesitation. Anything to help the team, right? Besides, he fully expected that at some point he'd go back to throwing passes, not catching them.

It does makes you wonder, though. What if Samardzija had been, say, 5-11? Would Brackett now be a fifth-year senior quarterback leading the Nits into action against No. 1 Alabama tonight in Bryant-Denny Stadium? Or would he still be what he is now, a large, dependable slot receiver who appears to be evolving into a go-to target for true freshman quarterback Rob Bolden?

"Hard to say," Brackett said of the curious path his college career has taken during his time in Happy Valley. "But you know what they say. It is what it is. I think I'm in a pretty good situation as it is."

A much better situation, in any case. He's one of two team captains, as voted on by the entire squad (senior defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu is the other), a seasoned leader in a mostly young offensive lineup, and a guy who is coming off an eight-reception, 98-yard, two-touchdown game in the season-opening, 44-14 rout of Youngstown State.

How impressive are those numbers? Well, consider that during the entire 2009 season, Brackett had just three receptions for 13 yards and one touchdown. One game into 2010, he has nearly half of the 17 catches he had for his career entering the current campaign.

"I had some passes come my way and had a good day," Brackett said, almost nonchalantly, of the biggest single-game production he's had since signing his letter-of-intent to play for coach Joe Paterno in February 2006.

Perhaps Brackett can't sustain that sort of pace on a weekly basis, but one thing is already clear: He no longer is an afterthought in the Penn State passing game, a twofold result of his being switched back to the slot, where his possession-type receiving skills are best utilized, and he has provided an instant comfort zone for Bolden, the preternaturally talented and poised rookie.

"He doesn't have quite the speed that some of the kids on the squad have, but he is sure-handed and runs routes well," Paterno said after Brackett found so many open spaces in the Youngstown State coverage. "The quarterbacks have a lot of confidence in him."

Brackett had hoped to have a similar impact in 2009, after recordsetting wideouts Deon Butler, Derek Williams and Jordan Norwood departed en masse. But Daryll Clark, who went on to win All-Big Ten honors for a second consecutive season, quickly identified Derek Moye and Graham Zug as his go-to guys, with Brackett seeing game action only occasionally as an outside receiver, where speed is emphasized.

"I feel like I didn't get lucky in certain situations," Brackett said of his semi-disappearance in 2009. "I tried my best to make blocking my thing last year and help the team in any way I could."

Moved back to the slot, he's a much happier - and busier - player than he had been.

"I came back with the same attitude I've always had," he said. "But I was very excited to be back in the slot."

Would he have been that pumped had he remained at quarterback? Brackett doesn't even try to play the what-if game. Things happen for a reason, or so he'd prefer to believe.

"I just put my faith in the coaching staff," he said of the position change he never questioned. "Coach Paterno has done it a lot of times in his career. He's changed guys' positions. I think it was just meant to be."