He warmed up a couple times in the second half, but that was about the extent of the action true freshman prodigy quarterback Anthony Morelli saw in Saturday's 14-7 loss to Northwestern.
That wasn't what the plan was, though.
The plan -- heading into the game, according to Penn State coach Joe Paterno -- was to get Morelli, a teenager with a cannon for an arm, a couple of series worth of work as the Nittany Lions' signal caller.
"I was told he's going to get a series or two, and he was told he was going to get a series or two," said Zack Mills, Penn State's first string quarterback.
But, for some reason, Paterno opted not to play Morelli at all against Northwestern.
"If we had gotten behind by more than a touchdown I probably would have stuck him in," Paterno said. "I didn't want to sit Zack on the bench when we still had a shot at it. He's a senior."
Paterno said this about his blue chip freshman quarterback as Justin King, a high school senior from Monroeville who many recruiting services consider the best high school cornerback prospect in the nation, watched from the balcony above the room.
Mills said Morelli started practicing with the second-string offense this week.
Morelli -- who, like all true freshman football players at Penn State, is not allowed to talk to the media -- has completed four passes in nine attempts for 32 yards in mostly mop-up duties at the end of games.
Major blockage
With the Wildcats driving at the end of the first half to try and steal momentum after the Lions' lone touchdown, Brian Huffman set up for a 31-yard field goal. Typically this is a chip shot, but with Huffman's shaky record this season and kick-blocker extraordinare Scott Paxson manning the middle, the script was set for a stop.
So it wasn't much of a surprise when the junior defensive tackle stuck his arm up and again somehow got in the way of a kick, deflecting the kick into the end zone to end the half.
It was Paxson's fifth block of the season and seventh of his career, making him second among active players in the country in career blocks.
"I was hoping it went forward," Paxson said of the block.
"We're always trying to score. We haven't scored. We've come close here and there but I was hoping to get a good piece of it to get it forward and maybe someone quick would take it to the house."
