Titcus Pettigrew walked up to Sam Crenshaw, put his arm around the senior flanker, and just started laughing. Hysterically.
"He's lying!" the senior free safety said. "To tell you the truth, he don't care about anything but eating! He eats hamburgers, cheeseburgers, anything he can get his hands on. Might be the biggest wide receiver in the country if he keeps going at the rate he's going."
Crenshaw's eyes opened wide, almost as if he'd been struck by lightning. In total disbelief, he shook his head at his jovial friend, turned, and smiled.
"Is that true?" a reporter asked.
"Nah, I don't know what he's talking about," Crenshaw responded.
Despite Pettigrew's claim, Crenshaw is hardly on track to be the biggest wide receiver in the country. Standing at 6-foot-2 and a shade under 200 pounds, he tends to rival secondary players — such as Pettigrew — rather than wideouts.
In fact, Crenshaw is hardly the biggest wide receiver on the team. That honor is shared by Matt Kranchick, a 6-foot-6, 218-pound redshirt sophomore who is expected to rival Rod Perry to back up junior Eddie Drummond at split end.
"I mean, there is a little bit of competition, but the guys, (Bryant) Johnson, Crenshaw, they have been working hard and should contribute a lot," Drummond said. "We're not just going to have one big-time player. It's going to be a combination of several different guys."
If Pettigrew's statement had any merit, Crenshaw's biggest contributions might come at the dinner table, when he'll undoubtedly be asked to finish what those with smaller appetites cannot.
On the field, however, the senior should expect to line up opposite Drummond to complete coach Joe Paterno's two-receiver set.
"We have some people who are very good," Paterno said. "We will go from there. I would hope that we would have some people who can get the job done."
From the early going, likely Penn State starting quarterback Rashard Casey seemed impressed.
"All summer long, they did a great job out there," Casey said. "We went out and had our little drills with the defense a few times a week, and they came to play every time we were out there. We had Eddie and Bryan and Sam and Rod, they all came, played, and I'm looking forward to starting the season."
Crenshaw and Drummond, while heading the depth chart at flanker and split end, don't worry about who's going to steal the limelight. Drummond, however, might have a slight advantage, having earned the luxury of playing an entire season after then-senior split end Corey Jones injured his hamstring against Arizona in the season opener.
"I don't think there's any competition," Crenshaw said. "Me and Eddie, we are cool. We just go out, ball out, do everything we can to be the best we can be."
The speedy Drummond, considered by many as the fastest on the team, caught 35 passes for 652 yards, second on the team to Chafie Fields, who now resides in San Francisco with 35 other rookies trying to make a name with the NFL's 49ers.
Crenshaw appeared in every game, making 10 catches. Unfortunately for him, he spent his 1999 season backing up the flanker who now takes his orders from Steve Mariucci.
"Experience or not," Crenshaw added, "it's just who coaches trust, who just go out and make the plays. That's basically it."
Perry, a junior, agrees. He's hungry to see some more playing time.
"I'm in the rotation. I see myself challenging to start," he said, despite seeing limited action after transferring from Southern California. "That's the attitude I have to take going in. I think that's a reachable goal for me, and that's what I'm going to try to do.
"We just push each other. I think we are all pretty good friends," Perry said. "We push each other in practice, and we stay on each other. We're supportive, and we pull for each other. We're the wideouts, and those are my guys."
Crenshaw, it seems, is just hungry. Sometimes, as Pettigrew points out, too hungry, and his teammate's sub-200 poundage won't stay that way for long.
But what about Pettigrew?
He's two inches shorter and 14 pounds heavier.
