The spotlight is now shining brightly on Ki-Jana Carter. It's no longer tailback by committee.

At yesterday's weekly news conference, Coach Joe Paterno hinted that Kerry Collins will be handing the pigskin to Carter even more over the next four games. The tailback has averaged just over 18 carries per game this season.

"He probably ought to carry the ball a little bit more than that from now on in," Paterno said. "At the beginning of the year we had three tailbacks, all of them almost equal. Ki-Jana has obviously come forward as probably the best one out of the three in certain ways."

Through Penn State's first seven games, Carter is averaging 6.7 yards per carry and 122.7 yards per game. The redshirt sophomore, who is fifth in the country in rushing, has also scored five touchdowns.

"I would imagine if Ki-Jana can stay healthy I'd like him to carry a little bit more than 18 times," Paterno said. "He's a young back. I'm not sure I want him to carry the ball 30 to 35 times. But, I think 22, 23, 24 times a ball game is not too much."

And Collins will continue to be the man under center handing the ball off to Carter. Despite back-to-back sub-par performances by the junior quarterback, Paterno has no intentions of replacing Collins with another signal caller.

In the last two games, Collins has thrown five interceptions and only one touchdown.

However, split end Bobby Engram doesn't blame Collins for the team's inadequate passing attack.

"It's not really Kerry," Engram said. "We have to look at all aspects of the passing game. We got on track for a while and now we're back off track."

Paterno knows that in order to exploit Indiana's impressive defense on Saturday, his team will have to maintain a more consistent aerial assault.

"I think Kerry is still trying to get the feel of things," Paterno said. "In all fairness to Kerry, we have not caught the ball very well."

Paterno still plans to keep Wally Richardson right where he has been so far this season -- on the sidelines. The quarterback is still eligible to be redshirted this season. Even if Penn State is leading by 50 points going into the fourth quarter of Saturday's game, most likely Collins will still be at the helm.

"I not going to put (Richardson) in to mop up or anything like that," Paterno said. "Right now, I would like to keep Wally out, whether I can do that or not I don't know."

Another thing Paterno doesn't know is why his defense hasn't been able to stop the run in the last two games. Against Ohio State and Michigan, the Nittany Lions allowed over 450 yards on the ground.

"I really don't think we've done as well as I expected us to do against the run," Paterno said. "That's the one area that's been most disappointing."