One of the luxuries of having a high-end college football program is a certain measure of roster depth, but with this luxury comes the hassle that is inherent when talented players don't see as much playing time as they might like.

Obviously, no sane college football coach would ever complain about having too much talent -- ask Penn State coach Joe Paterno about his depth at receiver the last few years.

But there still is the problem of what should be done when a team has a logjam of talent at one position, and one player makes his competition almost irrelevant.

Which is exactly what Tony Hunt has done to Austin Scott.

"I think [Scott is] playing behind a guy who's playing really well," Paterno said. "I don't know what else to say."

Hunt's emergence this season has been a boon for pretty much everyone surrounding Penn State except for Scott and fellow tailback Rodney Kinlaw.

Coming off of a season where he was stifled by defenses that would load eight or nine men in the box and dare Penn State to throw the football, Hunt has proven to be a consistent, tough and at times, explosive threat on the ground.

"Tony makes this thing go," Michael Robinson said after Penn State's win over Ohio State. "He makes this offense go."

But while Hunt is on the field making the Nittany Lions offense go, Scott sits on the bench and watches as his glorious high school career and subsequent highly hyped recruitment fades further and further into the past.

"It's just kind of been ups and downs. Sometimes I get in and other times I won't," Scott said. "It's just hard because I just want a couple plays just to try and make something out of them and sometimes I don't get that."

Entering the fall, all the talk around the program was about how Scott had finally turned the corner after two years of being held back by a dubious work ethic, and that he was ready to live up the expectations that come from 3,853-yard, 53-touchdown senior season in high school.

But Hunt's stellar fall has made Scott old news, new and improved attitude or not.

In the fall, Scott said that he expected that there would be enough carries for himself, Hunt and Kinlaw to all get their fill, but with the sudden improvement of Penn State's passing game and Hunt's strong performance, that has not been the case.

"[The coaches] say that I have been doing everything that they ask and I have been working hard and that they are trying to get me in the game, but a lot of times we don't even run the ball that much," Scott said.

Scott has been largely limited to mop-up carries in Penn State blowouts such as Saturday's 63-10 annihilation of Illinois, a game in which Scott carried 14 times for 57 yards.

But in his third year at Penn State, Scott actually seems to have regressed in his development. A confident player who once carried tacklers for yards at a time has looked tentative in his limited action this fall.

It appears as though even when he is on the field, Scott has left some of that confidence on the sideline.

"When you are not playing, you kind of start to doubt yourself a little bit, that's one of the things you have to battle with. I do sometimes get down on myself. I think I am too hard on myself about some things," Scott said. "I think I'm a little bit too critical sometimes. But that's just because I'm not playing and trying to find answers to questions that are not answered."

Those questions will probably not be answered unless Hunt gets injured or Scott improves drastically in the offseason. Scott says he periodically asks the coaches what he has to do to get on the field, and that they say he is doing everything they ask.

"Austin's been a great kid. Every time we've put him in there he's done well, he's shown enthusiasm, he's practicing very well," Paterno said. "His day will come but he's behind Hunt. He's got to beat out Tony and he hasn't done that yet."

In the meantime, Scott's teammates said that he has shown an impressive level of maturity in dealing with this current situation.

"I think he has handled it like a man," defensive end Matthew Rice said. "It's hard when you have a back in front of you like Tony that is carrying the rock as well as he is."

But even while dealing with his lack of playing time with a certain sense of perspective, Scott is still not afraid to question whether or not he has gotten a fair shake since he came to Happy Valley.

"I just feel like I haven't, I dunno, had as many opportunities as others. Not necessarily as many opportunities, but I don't feel like I ever actually had my time," Scott said. "I never felt like I had a position to lose or anything like that."

Whether Scott will ever be able to call the tailback position at Penn State his own remains to be seen, but quarterback Michael Robinson hasn't written off Scott yet.

"They'll definitely have to battle it out in the spring," Robinson said. "I think that will be an interesting position."

Still, Scott's future at Penn State remains murky at best, and whether or not he will even be on the field for the Lion's next year may be up in the air. When asked if he would consider redshirting next year he replied, "maybe," but when asked if he would consider, "other options," he didn't rule out the possibility.

"I don't know, I'll have to talk to the coaches see what they are thinking," Scott said.

But even if some of the confidence that Scott brought with him from Parkland High School is missing, the swagger has not completely disappeared.

"I still have the ability," Scott said. "I just haven't been able to show it yet."