When Derrick Williams signed with Penn State last winter, it was obvious that the second he put on a Penn State uniform, he would be an upgrade over the players the Nittany Lions had put on the field at wideout the last few seasons.
Ever since Bryant Johnson graduated after the 2002 season, a forgettable group of players have come and gone at receiver for Penn State.
The struggles of players like Gerald Smith, Kinta Palmer, Ryan Scott, Tony Johnson, Terrance Phillips, Ernie Terrell, Maurice Humphrey and Josh Hannum hurt not only Penn State's passing game, but also made life harder for the team's running backs.
The infusion of speed that the offense received in the offseason from players like true freshmen Williams and Justin King, and redshirt freshman Deon Butler, have most obviously improved Penn State's much maligned aerial attack. But the emergence of Butler has kept opposing defenses honest and kept them from keying on the run game or the other receivers.
"Derrick's making plays, Justin's making plays, Terrell goes down there and catches a deep ball today so it's kind of makes it hard for the defense to focus on one person with people making plays all the time," Butler said after Saturday's 40-3 victory over Central Michigan.
On Saturday, Butler's five catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns, Williams' two catches for 47 and solid contributions from a host of supporting players, helped Penn State quarterbacks Michael Robinson and Anthony Morelli to the second best passing day in Penn State football history.
Only Zack Mills' 399-yard performance in an overtime game against Iowa in 2002 topped Robinson and Morelli's 381 combined passing yards and four touchdowns on Saturday.
"Our receivers are doing a great job," Robinson said after the game. "The throws that I'm throwing, it's not like guys are not open. Guys are wide open, so what more can you ask for?"
Running back Tony Hunt has also been a beneficiary of the infusion of talent at wideout.
Hunt only carried the ball 10 times on Saturday, but still managed to roll up 84 yards on the ground, including an early 39-yard scamper that set the tone for the offense. He also added two catches for 36 yards.
Last year, Hunt struggled to find room during Big Ten play, because most of his carries came against defenses with eight or nine men in the box.
With the Lions' Big Ten schedule starting next weekend with a trip to Northwestern, Hunt is optimistic that the young wideouts will continue to ensure that he has space to run.
"Last season, I don't think we really established much of the passing game early, and our run game wasn't really too great," Hunt said. "Sometimes we go out there and we just get a big play and get off the field. We didn't have that last year. I don't think we had a long pass play all last year."
Finally having athletes who can beat corners one-on-one on the edge has also allowed play-callers Jay Paterno and Galen Hall to be a bit more creative.
Rather than using gimmicky trick plays to try and spring a player as they have been forced to do in the past, Hall and Paterno can simply create favorable matchups for the youngsters and let their athleticism do the rest.
"The coaches do a great job scheming up things where if [the opposition] takes one option away, it's another option is gonna be open," Robinson said. "That's all attributed to the coaches. They do a great job getting us in the right situation."
Above all else, the new receivers have brought an attitude, confidence and work ethic that sometimes seemed to be missing in the past.
"We play kind of fearless," Butler said. "You saw Derrick go up today and he happened to miss the pass but he took a good hit and popped right back up.
"That's where I think the fire in the receivers is a lot more than last year. You can see it on simple catches where we're trying to make a guy miss. Sometimes last year a guy might just catch it and be content to go down."
