Arms folded, masking the number on his jersey that would give him away, Dan Connor looked bored.

He looked like he didn't want be witnessing the Penn State defense wear down in the waning minutes of the second quarter.

Connor most likely wanted to be on the field with his teammates, preventing South Florida from marching 55 yards on eight plays in two minutes.

But, most likely, Connor won't get a chance to share what he wants any time soon.

A smattering of Nittany Lions, both defensive and offensive, are still stuck in respective self-created mires. Some saw playing time; others tried their best not to be seen.

Scott Paxson made his mark on the field first.

Junior Jim Shaw is now considered week-to-week after going down in the second quarter with a torn medial collateral ligament, an injury that will not require surgery.

And while replacing Shaw, Paxson turned in one of the best performances of his career with seven tackles -- a personal best.

Tyler Reed, who has been working his way out of the basement of the depth chart like Paxson since the spring semester's bow-and-arrow incident, entered the fray out of necessity.

Right guard junior Robert Price -- and the rest of the offensive line for that matter -- just wasn't getting the nitty-gritty work done in the first quarter. Quarterback Michael Robinson was sacked twice, and, although Robinson had the most touches on the ground with eight, he had the lowest yards-per-rush average, 1.1.

Tailback Tony Hunt wasn't far behind, second in touches in the first quarter with four for an average of 1.3 yards-per-carry.

Offensive line play improved slightly after Reed entered the lineup, but allowing only one sack for the duration of the game and helping to tab 173 yards rushing could have been credited to South Florida wear and tear as much as improved play from the offensive line.

"As an offensive line, there was a lot of things we didn't do well," John Wilson said. "I thought [South Florida] ran a lot better than I thought they were going to run."

Wilson has been a starter at tackle since Levi Brown went down with an injury last season. He played well enough to usurp Andrew Richardson at right tackle when Brown returned to the lineup. Richardson was also temporarily suspended from the team in the spring, along with center E.Z. Smith, as a result of the bow-and-arrow incident.

There was a Richardson sighting on kickoff coverage, but No. 50 never made it onto the offensive line.

Smith, who was temporarily expelled through the summer semesters as a result of the bow-and-arrow incident, has been working with the scout team since he returned to campus, and practice, last Tuesday.

But Smith was lounging on the sidelines in street-clothes on Saturday -- a yellow-striped polo shirt and cargo shorts, topped off with a Penn State hat.

The list goes on. Safety Nolan McCready and wide receiver Jim Kanuch, who both received "summary offenses" along with Connor for their alleged participation in a prank phone calling incident, were on the bench.

Kanuch slouched in his No. 5 jersey with the requisite cargo shorts, as did McCready in his No. 24.

Still, no player was more protective -- or perhaps protected -- of his anonymi-

ty than Connor. In addition to crossing his arms, he was usually conveniently shielded by fellow large football players, preventing photographers from getting a clean angle of his mug on the sidelines.

The replacements

Tyrell Sales started the first game of his career at Penn State, filling in for Connor at linebacker. The redshirt freshman, who was listed accidentally in the final game stats as last year's No. 46, Curt Reese, got into the backfield once on a run stop and brought down the Bulls' Courtney Denson with Tim Shaw, who yanked out the ball allowing for Alan Zemaitis to scoop up the bouncing brick and take it to the house.

"He didn't stand out in a bad way," Shaw said about Sales' performance. "So you knew he did his job."

Fellow redshirt freshman Josh Gaines also made his first Penn State appearance on the defensive line.

While giving starting ends Matthew Rice and Tamba Hali respective breathers, Gaines matched Sales' three tackles, including one for a loss.