Two Nittany Lion football players will do a lot of studying outside of class this week.

Their assignment?

Become Terrelle Pryor.

As the No. 3 Lions prepare for Saturday night's matchup with the Buckeyes and their phenom true freshman quarterback, Joe Paterno is using two former walk-on players to simulate Pryor's passing and running abilities in practice.

True freshman quarterback Matt McGloin will replicate Pryor's arm while junior wide receiver Patrick Mauti will reenact his running abilities.

Paterno said he met with his staff on Sunday to decide who would quarterback the scout team. The Penn State coaching staff wanted someone whose play could closely resemble that of Pryor. In the end they decided on McGloin and Mauti.

"You can't get anybody that's going to be as good as the guy you're playing against," Paterno said. "Because No. 1 -- they don't practice it all year and No. 2 -- the kind of athletes you're playing against, particularly this week, it will be awfully tough to find somebody that could mimic them exactly."

In that respect, Mauti and McGloin already come up short.

Mauti stands 5-foot-10 and weighs in at 190 pounds. McGloin is listed at 6-foot-1 and also weighs 190 pounds. Pryor, the Big Ten's biggest signal caller, is 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds.

Despite Mauti and McGloin's size differences compared with Pryor, junior defensive tackle Jared Odrick said the two can use their different skill sets to combine as one Pryor clone.

"We've got Pat Mauti back there. He's a real quick guy," Odrick said. "He may not have the same size as Pryor, but he's real quick and we can get some of the looks, just being able to scramble or run the option. We've got McGloin back there too."

Mauti, who is the older brother of freshman Lion linebacker Michael Mauti, was a decorated athlete while at Mandeville High School in Louisiana and has previous quarterbacking experience. He played quarterback in high school and also used his speed and agility on the tennis court.

In 2005, his senior year, Mauti and a partner won the Division-I Regional doubles championship.

Penn State senior cornerback Tony Davis called Mauti a "dual threat" on the scout team and said Mauti has helped out on the scout team before

Doubling as Pryor won't be the first time Mauti has adopted the traits of another quarterback. During the 2006 season, Mauti stood in as Juice Williams leading up to the Illinois game.

While Mauti will try to duplicate Pryor's shiftiness, McGloin will lead the scout team in passing situations.

McGloin, a standout quarterback at West Scranton High School, threw for 5,485 yards and 58 touchdowns in his high school career. In his last meaningful action, during this summer's Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association East-West All Star Game, McGloin completed 6-of-12 passes for 78 yards.

The Scranton, Pa. Native showed off his athleticism on one play in the second quarter. Facing pressure up the middle, McGloin was hit by a defender but stayed on his feet and gunned the ball 36 yards down the field to the 1-yard line.

Paterno said he would have the scout quarterbacks study film of Pryor in order to imitate his play.

"You try to get the kid to look at tapes," Paterno said. "Try to get him to understand that these are the things he has to do in certain situations so that he's really making your football team aware of what can happen and aware of what they have to be able to do when certain things do happen."

Still, Paterno said Pryor would be very hard to duplicate.

"That's the thing that makes it so tough with Pryor," Paterno said. "He's got an awfully strong arm and a quick release, but when he takes off, he takes off. He's a tough guy to get. It's going to be interesting."