IT REALLY WASN'T supposed to be this simple, was it? Just one game into the starting careers of seventh-ranked Penn State's new trio of marquee wide receivers, all seemingly have settled comfortably into the roles formerly assigned to their illustrious predecessors. They left Happy Valley filling three of the top four pass-reception slots in school history.
"I said these guys were going to surprise people, didn't I?" Nittany Lions quarterback Daryll Clark said of Derek Moye, Chaz Powell and Graham Zug, onetime understudies who have assumed the respective identities of esteemed wideouts Deon Butler, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood.
Moye, a 6-5, 195-pound redshirt sophomore who had three catches for 71 yards and a touchdown a year ago, has emerged as the deep threat personified the last several seasons by Butler. Powell (two receptions for 37 yards in '08) appears to be earmarked for the sort of screens, flares and make-you-miss moves that were Williams' stock in trade. That leaves former walk-on Zug (11 catches for 174 yards and two touchdowns) as the sure-handed, move-the-chains possession receiver, as was Norwood.