Penn State receiver Devon Smith in fly zone

It's amazing that a little guy like Penn State sophomore Devon Smith can run so incredibly fast with that large chip on his shoulder.

At 5-7 and 159 pounds - up from the 146 he carried on his Lilliputian frame when he arrived on campus in the summer of 2009 - Smith is the runt of the litter among the Nittany Lions, almost all of whom dwarf him. Even placekicker Collin Wagner, at 5-9 and 178, semi-towers over the former high school sprint champion from White Plains, Md.

But nobody at Penn State worries so much about Smith's smallish frame these days; he's shown he can play ball, and well, with the big boys. Oh, it'd be nice if he were, say, 6-1 and 200, but wishing won't make it so. Then again, some of the skill-position players who have significant height and weight advantages on Smith, no doubt, wish they could get from Point A to Point B as rapidly as the kid who most recently was timed in 40 yards in a jaw-dropping 4.23 seconds.

Like they say, speed kills. With the ball in his hands and a little wiggle room, Smith is a nightmare for opposing defenders to corral, a human whippet who always is one missed tackle from turning a 5-yard hitch pattern into an 80-yard scoring strike.

"I just love getting in open space and making something happen against a [cornerback] or a safety, one-on-one," Smith said, a delightful thought apparently shared by Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his offensive assistants.

Listed as one of Penn State's three starting wide receivers, Smith, who also occasionally will take handoffs on running plays, could be a major factor when No. 23 Penn State (2-1) hosts upset-minded Temple (3-0) Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium.

Through the first three games, Smith has caught nine passes for 135 yards and a touchdown, carried the ball six times for 12 yards and returned two punts for 18 yards.

That type of production is more or less mirrored by Temple running back Matt Brown, who is virtually a physical replica of Smith at 5-5, 170. Brown, a sophomore from Baltimore, rushed for 529 yards and scored five touchdowns in 2009 and this season has added 110 yards on 28 carries as a complement to his larger, more celebrated partner in the Owls' backfield, Bernard Pierce.

Smith is keenly aware of Brown, as he was of former LSU running back Trindon Holliday, another breathtaking speedster who came wrapped in a tiny package (5-5, 165). In college football and even more so in the NFL, bias sometimes comes in the form of skeptics who believe that someone who doesn't meet the physical criteria isn't deserving of a chance to prove them wrong.

"You can be short and not have the weight, but if you're athletic enough, coaches don't have a choice but to play you," Smith insisted, an opinion that isn't as widely shared as he chooses to believe.

But that speed thing . . . it does make for a heck of an argument for being given a chance, doesn't it?

Smith said he realized he was exceptionally fast at 9, and from that early age to now he has lost only one footrace, that in his junior year of high school when he placed second in the national indoor 60-meter championship, an event he won the following year.

He committed to Penn State early, which might have dissuaded some football suitors, but he said his low grades were more of a concern than his lack of size.

"My highlights tape showed that I could do it all," Smith said. "Once I got my grades up, North Carolina came in. I had an offer from Temple, from a lot of [Mid-American Conference] schools. Oh, and Clemson."

If there is something Smith is most proud of, it's his strength. It's a given that he's a blur, but he takes pride in his performance in the weight room.

"I bench-press 265 pounds, like, three times," he said.

But speed and a surprisingly good bench-press aren't all it takes for smurfs like Smith to prove their worth on the football field.

"Trindon Holliday was short and fast, but he wasn't scared," Smith said. "Same thing with Matt Brown. You've just got to have that desire to play football and be a competitor.

"Going into the summertime, I knew I had to show everyone I wasn't scared, that I was fearless and could play football. That's what they saw in me. Now I'm doing my thing."

And doing it very, very quickly.

It's beginning to look as if Penn State's expected starter at tight end, redshirt junior Andrew Szczerba, won't play at all this season because of a lingering back problem. Redshirt freshman Garry Gilliam and true freshman Kevin Haplea are one-two on the depth chart, but neither has caught a pass. The lack of a receiving threat at tight end, where Andrew Quarless and Mickey Shuler combined for 52 catches and five touchdowns in 2009, might explain, in part, the relative ineffectiveness of the running game. *