For all the preseason hype and misdirection touting the Penn State football team's receiving corps, the Nittany Lions' obsession with throwing the ball was merely a passing fancy.
Five games into a season that is careening out of control faster than the California gubernatorial re-call election, no one from Penn State's supposedly strong receiving corps has yet distinguished himself as a primary option.
It was perhaps the most salient point of the Lions' final drive in their 20-14 loss to Minnesota on Saturday, with seven different players touching the ball. While an array of weapons is usually a positive, it usually only works as a supplement to a No. 1 option.
So on Penn State's final drive, wideout Tony Johnson was conspicuous in his absence. The senior caught a 10-yard completion on second down to move the ball inside the defense's 40-yard line, but hurt his leg in the process.
At first glance, it may seem like a team leader making a big play, but it was the last time quarterback Michael Robinson threw to Johnson on the drive. Instead, junior receiver Gerald Smith was the primary target, back-up tight end Matt Kranchick was thrown to once and freshman tailback Austin Scott got a carry.
In light of those events, which yielded Penn State's second loss of the season by eight points or less, Smith sat in the locker room and tried to explain the dynamics of the locker room.
"I think everybody is stepping up," Smith said. "Everybody's putting in an equal share of leadership."
Which, by definition, means no one is specifically leading the team. That includes Johnson, a senior and the team's leading receiver and quarterback Zack Mills, who missed the second half with an MCL sprain.
Part of the problem stems from the inability of flankers Kinta Palmer and Ernie Terrell to adjust to the college game. Both receivers tend to break off routes or run them incorrectly and don't seem to be reliable options.
That makes Terrell's catch on Penn State's final drive even stranger. Why Paterno chose to insert the sophomore into the game for the first time on Saturday with less than two minutes left and the game on the line is uncertain. And if Terrell is capable of making a big play, like the 20-yard reception that put the Lions at midfield, his sporadic playing time is also problematic.
The biggest vote of no-confidence in Terrell and Palmer may have been the move that sent freshmen Donnie Johnson and Maurice Humphrey to receiver.
Humphrey's move has been fairly smooth and he had one catch during Saturday's game, but he was a non-factor on Saturday's biggest drive.
Donnie Johnson had his share of mistakes, perhaps the most glaring coming on Robinson's fourth-quarter interceptions. Johnson was on a pattern into the secondary and cut behind Minnesota defensive back Justin Fraley. While Robinson might have simply made a bad decision, it seems more likely that Johnson ran the wrong pattern and possibly should have hooked in front of the defender.
After the game, Paterno said several plays from the offensive playbook had to be culled because of problems with conditioning.
"We try to be ready and pick out the things we can do well so [the players] are comfortable," Paterno said. "The thing that has me worried is that we have kids getting tired out there. I cut back so much stuff both defensively and offensively because we are worried about the mental and physical fatigue."
That mental fatigue could come as a direct result of the many dropped passes. The receivers did a better job of controlling the ball on Saturday, but Smith missed a pass that would have kept a drive going.
Because of the drops and because of the inability of several players to make a play when it counted the most, Penn State's receiving corps is immobilized in a swamp of uncertainty.
And with talented Big Ten secondaries like Purdue and Iowa coming in the next month, the Lions need to select a core group of wideouts or Penn State's passing attack will be easily grounded.
