Daryll Clark's phone rings. When he picks up, another Penn State quarterback is on the other end. Pat Devlin wants to go watch game film.

At practice, Devlin fields a question from a teammate. When he turns around, Clark, wearing a red jersey, wants to know what he missed on the last play.

"He has a pretty sharp eye of the game like I do and we feed off of one another," Clark said. "We're competing, but we're helping each other at the same time."

It's been this way since December.

Both signal-callers' quests to become the next Penn State quarterback started early this winter.

After the Alamo Bowl win, in which he scored a touchdown, Clark had a taste of the action. He immediately wanted to get to work. He met with the receiving corps during winter conditioning practices.

They worked on timing and Clark dialed in his drop steps. He wanted his teammates to see him as a leader. Clark wanted to show them -- he was the guy.

Devlin watched Clark score and celebrate in the locker room after the Alamo Bowl. He wanted to be the guy, too. So Devlin joined Clark, the receivers and the running backs.

The two quarterbacks developed relationships with the offense together, and earlier this spring, senior wideout Jordan Norwood revealed that both Clark and Devlin are pretty similar quarterbacks.

"There's not a whole lot of differences, to tell the truth," Norwood said. "Both throw great passes and are pretty agile in the pocket also."

In addition to proving themselves to their teammates, Clark and Devlin have both set out to prove to themselves and observers that they can do it all. Clark wants to disprove the belief that he is a run-first quarterback. Devlin wants people to believe he can make plays with his feet.

"Daryll can throw the ball, and I can run the ball a little bit," Devlin said. "I've never said that I was a track star or anything, but I can move around in the pocket and Daryll can do the same thing. I really don't think there's that much difference with us."

Clark will likely start this weekend's Blue-White game but won't say definitively yet if he is the starter. The game that matters is still four months away.

Joe Paterno said he didn't need to know who his starting quarterback would be this spring. There's still plenty of time to see them both in different situations, Paterno said.

Senior safety Anthony Scirrotto said he has seen enough of both quarterbacks to have faith in both of them, no matter which one is the starter.

"Both are dual quarterbacks in my eyes," Scirrotto said. "I guess Daryll's ability to move. He's proven himself on the field in last year's bowl game. They both have the capability to get outside the pocket and make plays and they both have great arms."

Clark and Devlin are aware of the pressures that come along with being the Penn State quarterback. They saw it last season when former teammate Anthony Morelli struggled.

Both quarterbacks said they have been preparing to face criticisms if they win the starting job.

"[It's] one of those things ... that there will be negative and there will be positive," Clark said of the added attention. "To me, I would feed off the negative for inspiration. You can't dwell on a bunch of negative things."

Clark took all the snaps with the first-team offense at last week's Coaches Clinic scrimmage, but said the coaches have not told him he has won the starting job when the regular season starts.

Devlin worked with the second-team offense and said he didn't ask the coaches why he didn't get any reps with the first-team. He said with the exception of that practice, the reps have been split pretty equally all spring.

"I really like going with the second-team because there are more learning opportunities that go on there," Devlin said.

"Just watching film you can see, if we had done this one thing we would have had them here."