It is yet another one of those visuals of the first four games of last season that still gives the Penn State football team nightmares.

The image of a huge, athletic and previously anonymous Iowa tight end with a catchy name constantly finding holes in the Nittany Lion secondary on slant patterns and deep in routes.

"Their tight end, that No. 44 killed us," Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said. "He's an excellent receiver."

The player's name was Dallas Clark, and the total damage was seven receptions for 116 yards in the Hawkeyes' 24-18 victory over the Lions, the second of the Lions' four opening losses.

He wasn't just serving as a typical safety valve as tight ends ordinarily do, counting a 38-yard reception among his catches.

Pretty good for a guy who as of three weeks before had never caught a pass in a real game in his life.

Clark was a quarterback and linebacker at Twin River Valley H.S. in Livermore, Iowa. He was recruited by the Hawkeyes to play linebacker after recording 160 tackles in his senior year and being named second team all-state.

After redshirting his first year on campus, and earning a medical redshirt in his second year, Clark finally got a chance to play in 2000, seeing action in all 12 games as a linebacker and special-teamer.

However, in spring practice prior to last season, the Hawkeye coaching staff had to find a tight end with the loss of Kyle Trippeer, and they saw that they had an athlete in Clark, who at 6-foot-4, 244 pounds could fill the void.

"He was just a great athlete," tight ends coach Reese Morgan said. "And as a former high school quarterback, he had an innate ability to recognize things in the defense."

Clark was able to pick up the receiving part of the position very easily, but learning the position's other responsibilities took some work.

"Blocking was the toughest thing for me to adjust to," Clark said. "I had a knack for running good pass routes. Blocking was really something I focused on in practice a lot, and it's something I thought I really improved upon."

He improved enough to win the starting job when the season began, and made an immediate impact. In his first game he caught five balls for 84 yards against Kent State. The following week, he hauled in four receptions for 74 yards and scored his first two collegiate touchdowns.

After he exploded against Penn State in his next game, he started to draw more attention, but he still finished with 38 receptions for 539 yards and four touchdowns. He's not going to surprise anyone this season either.

"I'm recognizing that there is a lot more attention," he said. "Teams are a lot more focused on me. Sometimes they're using safeties to cover me or double-teaming me, but I like drawing that kind of attention. It puts our wide receivers in one-on-one coverage, and that's the type of situation we want them to be in."

Clark only has nine receptions for 86 yards in the Hawkeyes' four games, but that has opened things up for the Hawkeyes wide receivers, as Clark expected. Junior wide receiver Maurice Brown, who only had three receptions in his career until this season, has 16 receptions for 334 yards and four touchdowns, partly because of the focus on Clark.

Clark expects the Lions, who know all too well what he can do, to give him the same kind of attention tomorrow.

"I think they will be a little more aware of me as a tight end this year," he said. "Last year we were able to capitalize on some things they were giving us. I don't think they'll be going with the same plan."