For a lot of players the best part of the Blue-White game is that when it ends, Spring practice is over.

However, fullback Sean McHugh needed to get back on the field. He hadn't played a game since breaking his leg against Michigan Oct. 6. Though it will still be another four months before he lines up against another team, he was excited to return to the scene of his injury with the leg now healed.

"After breaking the old leg, I was dying just to get out there and play," McHugh said. "This whole Spring's been nice just to get a chance to get back on the field and start playing football again, and obviously it's even more fun when you get to go out and play in front of a few thousand people. It makes it that much more enjoyable."

That wasn't the only reason this game meant something to McHugh. The pains of this offseason have included a lot more than his leg rehab.

McHugh's mother Jeanne died of cancer over the winter, and Saturday's scrimmage was obviously the first time he played a game knowing that when he met with his family afterward, there would be one significant person absent.

"It was weird because you expect your mom to be there," he said. "But we're a real close family, and we support each other and help each other through that. It's nice just to have that ability to have my family be up here -- my brothers and my sisters and everyone up here to help each other out. Having those people up here makes it that much easier.

McHugh has somehow managed to keep the devastating loss from affecting his play, as he continued his productive Spring Saturday. He pulled in eight receptions for 58 yards to lead all receivers, serving as the safety valve for Blue team quarterbacks Zack Mills and Chris Ganter.

With his performance on Saturday and throughout the Spring, McHugh has put himself in great position to win back the starting job at fullback. He will still have beat out junior Paul Jefferson, who was out of the Blue-White game with an injury, but the work he has done this Spring has impressed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

Though Paterno doubts McHugh has gotten over the tragedy, he has not seen it deteriorate his play on the field.

"I think he's done alright with it, but you never know," Paterno said. "You don't know what the kid goes through when he's walking from class to class or when he's by himself in his room, thinking 'Why my mom?'...I don't think you ever get over that.

"But as far as football, he's been all business out there. He's going to be a big time player."

McHugh's return to the lineup will make a number of other player's lives easier. He especially helps Mills, who can look forward to having the 6-foot-5, 264 pound former tight end catching passes out of the backfield and picking up blitzes.

"It's night and day having him in there," Mills said. "He's a big guy, a big target. You know he's going to get you five or six yards. He's tremendous at breaking tackles and getting even bigger gains."

To continue to produce as he has, McHugh will have to find a way to handle his emotion in each game. He has started to do so, but he's not sure how that will change once the games are real.

"I said a little prayer before I went out there and asked for help and to keep the team safe," McHugh said. "I think it will really be a big factor when we kick off against someone else, because this is still like a practice for us. But it was in the back of my mind."