OHIO:
Next stop for
unbeaten
Nittany Lions
Continued from page 17
a golf cart instead of shuttling
back and forth between drills.
"Up until I got this thing, I'd be
in there and demonstrating once
in a while. I miss that part, but
the assistant coaches just picked
up, and I'm tough on them,"
Patemo said Saturday night.
Defensive coordinator Tom
Bradley, a Paterno lieutenant
for three decades, is the de facto
leader on the field when JoePa is
upstairs. Veteran defensive line
coach Larry Johnson has his unit
playing well.
Offensive coordinator Galen
Hall has seen 19 bowl games
in his 31 years as a coach.
Paterno's son and quarterbacks
coach, Jay Patemo, has done a
good job with breakout star QB
Daryll Clark and the Spread HD
offense.
If Paterno sees something he
doesn't like, he tells his staff.
It's exactly what happened at
halftime the last three games
with Paterno in the box, said
center and senior leader A.Q.
Shipley.
Penn State climbs to No. 3 after bashing Badgers
By CHRIS JENKINS
AP SPORTS WRITER
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ Meet
Penn State, the scrappy little
underdog looking to prove its
doubters wrong.
OK, so the no-respect bit might be
a little hard to swallow at this point,
with Penn State ranked No. 3 and
plowing through the opposition on
its way to a 7-0 start.
But Penn State quarterback Daryll
Clark senses some skepticism.
So after a 48-7 dismantling of
slumping Wisconsin on Saturday
night, Clark said the Nittany
Lions are out to prove they're
legitimate national championship
contenders.
"We ignore what people say
that we're overrated, that we can't
win on the road and things like
that," Clark said. "Joe (Paterno)
tells us to put that on the back
Penn St. gets up-close look at Terrelle Pryor
BY GENARO C. ARMAS
AP SPORTS WRITER
The loser in the Terrelle Pryor
recruiting sweepstakes gets his
first up-close look at Ohio State's
freshman phenom.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno
doesn't have any regrets or hold
any grudges.
"No, no. Everybody's got to do
what they got to do. You're dealing
with a kid who's got to make a life
for himself," Paterno said Tuesday
outside Beaver Stadium. "You're
dealing with people's lives.
"It's working out for him fine. I
hope we beat him, but you know
how that goes," Paterno said.
As if Saturday's game at the
Horseshoe between the unbeaten
No. 3 Nittany Lions (8-0, 4-0 Big
Ten) and the No. 10 Buckeyes (7-
1, 4-0) needed another storyline.
A year ago, the 6-foot-6 Pryor
was THE hot high school recruit,
a freakish blend of size, speed
and strength who made college
coaches drool. The native of the
Pittsburgh suburb of Jeannette was
the only player in Pennsylvania
high school history to rush for
more than 4,000 yards and throw
for more than 4,000 in a career.
Pryor's reputation was burnished
by his western Pennsylvania
pedigree, hailing from a region
nicknamed the "Cradle of
burner, but don't forget about it."
After winning back-to-back Big
Ten road games, the Nittany Lions
head home to play struggling
Michigan the next step in what
might be shaping up as another
title run under the 81-year-old
Coach Paterno.
Patemo, whose sore hip forced
him to coach from the press box
for the second week in a row,
said the Nittany Lions "deserve
to be considered" in the national
championship picture.
"Our goal is to get to the top and
there is no room for stumbles,"
left tackle Gerald Cadogan said.
"It was important to keep making
a statement and we did against
Wisconsin."
Despite dealing Wisconsin (3-
3, 0-3) its worst loss since 1989,
Nittany Lions players saw room
for improvement especially on
offense.
Clark was 16-of-25 for 244 yards
Quarterbacks" for producing the
likes of Dan Marino, Joe Montana
and Johnny Unitas, among others.
Suitors lined up outside the front
door of his high school. Rich
Rodriguez had called, first at West
Virginia, then from Michigan.
Oregon was one of the finalists.
Adding to the drama was his
last-minute and unusual decision
to delay committing on national
signing day, on Feb. 6, after his
father wanted him to take more
time to consider Happy Valley.
Penn State defensive coordinator
Tom Bradley and quarterback
coach Jay Paterno put on a full
court press, crossing paths with
Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel
and his staff.
Joe Paterno was mistaken if
he thought Pryor was locked up
to Ohio State as a junior in high
school, Tressel said.
"I guess we tricked him, because
I'm not sure that was true," Tressel
said Tuesday.
During his deliberations, Pryor
continued to give signs
unintentional or not —that he was
leaning toward Ohio State.
Tressel said his confidence never
wavered, though he did not take
Pryor's signing for granted.
"So for me to sit back and
make the assumption that, well,
I'm confident because this is the
best place for him, that's a little
shortsighted, but I felt that he
and a touchdown, and ran for
another two scores. But running
back Evan Royster was held to 60
yards and a touchdown.
The lopsided final score was
more about the Nittany Lions'
dominant defense. Penn State held
the Badgers' once-intimidating
running game to a relatively tame
148 yards and delivered four
turnovers.
"Wisconsin gave us the ball
multiple times," Paterno said.
So to summarize, Penn State beat
a team that recently was ranked in
the top 10 by 41 points on the road
and thinks it can play much
better.
"We didn't play our best game but it
was still a dominant performance,"
wide receiver Jordan Norwood
said. "We still have a lot to work
on but it was great to quiet their
crowd and to play so well in a
hostile environment."
Camp Randall Stadium certainly
felt that way and if he continued
to feel that way it would go our
way," Tressel said this week.
On March 15, Pryor had the
opportunity to put a storybook
ending on his recruiting when he
won a state high school basketball
championship at the Bryce Jordan
Center, on Penn State's campus.
Instead, clutching the trophy in
his hand, Pryor didn't sound too
thrilled with the State College
area, though he called Penn State
a good school with good coaches.
Four days later, he signed with
Ohio State.
"He's going to be a great player.
Good kid with a lot of poise.
Handles pressure, knows what's
going on," Paterno said Tuesday
at his weekly news conference.
"He'll be one of the really good
quarterbacks we've had coming
out of this state."
Pryor is off to an encouraging
start for a freshman quarterback
leading a team with BCS
aspirations, though there have
been struggles.
He has shown a propensity to
take a lot of negative plays, which
made the performance last week
against Michigan State promising.
Pryor went 7-of-11 passing for
116 yards and one touchdown,
and ran for 72 yards and an 18-
yard score.
Pryor isn't made available to
speak with reporters at midweek,
was a hostile environment
Saturday, but much of that hostility
was directed toward the home
team and its embattled starting
quarterback, Allan Evridge.
Badgers coach Bret Bielema
pulled Evridge, a transfer from
Kansas State who won the job in
training camp, in favor of backup
Dustin Sherer in the third quarter.
Already on a short leash after
disappointing performances in
narrow losses at Michigan and
against Ohio State at home,
Evridge was 2-of-10 for 50 yards
and an interception before he was
pulled from Saturday's game.
Bielema isn't committing to a
quarterback for Saturday's game
at lowa.
"Now it's all about pride,"
Evridge said. "We've kind of let a
lot of things go. We lost those two
games by a small margin and today
we just got absolutely destroyed.
We've got to continue one game at
though he does talk to the media
briefly after games.
"We're hungry for more. We
want more," Pryor said after the
Michigan State win. "We got a big
fight next week."
Tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells
called Pryor a "carefree-type of
guy" who is growing into a leader.
"He's become more calm and
poised out there on the football
field. You can just tell."
Apparently, Bradley is still close
enough with the quarterback
to get a text message from him
now and then, including a recent
one offering to show the veteran
assistant around Columbus.
"I asked him if he had the wrong
number," joked Bradley, who said
he had no problems with how
Pryor's recruiting went down.
There's little time for small talk,
though, since Bradley will have
to put together a scheme to shut
down Pryor and the increasingly
confident Ohio State offense.
Things have turned out pretty
well, too, for Penn State, firmly in
the national championship hunt.
The Spread HD offense is scoring
45 points a game with first-year
starter Daryll Clark playing
brilliantly under center.
"To tell you the truth we have our
own great quarterbacks," Nittany
Lions cornerback Tony Davis
said. "(Pryor) chose to go to Ohio
State."
a time and start next week against
lowa."
It was the second straight home
loss for the Badgers, and the first
time they'd opened conference
play with three losses since 2002.
"Obviously, when you get into
the coaching profession, there
will be good days and bad days,"
Bielema said. "Today, our team
did some good things at times,
but overall, did not do very many
positive things."
Wisconsin's struggles didn't
seem to be much of a surprise to
Penn State defensive end Aaron
Maybin.
"We really are pretty confident in
our abilities," Maybin said. "We
know what we can do. We knew
coming in that we bad the ability
to break this game open. It was
a matter of going out and getting
it done, as always. We wanted to
make sure we sent a message to
them and we did that."