GREAT THINGS AWAITING, EXPECTED OF CLARK

Since Joe Paterno became head coach of the Penn State football program in 1966, nine players (including Curt Warner later this year) have been inducted into College Football's Hall of Fame. Exactly zero of them played quarterback. But just because none of Paterno's signal-callers have been immortalized in South Bend, it doesn't mean that this position isn't one of the greatest harbingers for the Lion's success in a particular season. As a matter of fact, it just about guarantees it.

Consider that Penn State will be led by senior captain Darryl Clark at quarterback this season. Last season he won the Big Ten's Offensive MVP award and joined Kerry Collins and Michael Robinson as quarterbacks that have guided the Lions to a Big Ten title. However, unlike Collins and Robinson, Clark accomplished this feat before his senior year, injecting Penn State fans with optimism for his final campaign - and for good reason.

Beginning in 1968, Penn State has enjoyed twenty 10+ win seasons under Paterno. The absolutely remarkable thing about this accomplishment is that each time a quarterback led the Lions to 10+ wins and returned for his next season, he did it again. Think about that. Never has a Paterno-coached quarterback failed to deliver after tasting success in the form of a double-digit win season! Seriously...I looked it up.

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A similar look at the history of 10+ win seasons over the same time period at Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Notre Dame and Alabama shows that this occurrence is unique to Penn State among those schools. And as more evidence that the quarterback is the major reason for this phenomenon, only once (1972-1973) has a first-year quarterback taken over a 10+ win Nittany Lions team and managed to repeat that accomplishment.

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The expectations facing Clark in 2009 include successfully defending the conference championship, being the captain to a team full of untested talent on both sides of the ball, improving on his own individual numbers to make a run to the Heisman trophy and continuing the newest Golden Age of Penn State football that he watched begin from the sidelines as a freshman in 2005. That may seem like a lot to lay on the shoulders of one man, but Clark has his teammates, all of Nittany Nation and history to rely on.

GROWING PAINS

If you were like me growing up, you eagerly got off the 3rd grade bus, grabbed a couple of cookies from the highest cupboard mom could hide them in and you sat down for the 3:30 episode of Growing Pains. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the hit 80's television show, I'll briefly fill you in.

Kirk Cameron played a young Mike Seaver who, coincidentally enough, experienced his own growing pains as he grew up on Long Island in a family of six. The show revolved around Mike as he grew into a mature young man. The audience was able to not only witness the trials and tribulations that Mike got himself into, but also the struggles of the remaining family as they grew together.

After watching the past three Penn State games, I've realized that the Nittany Lions are not only playing football, they're actually reenacting their own version of Growing Pains. Quarterback Darryl Clark is playing Mike Seaver, and the rest of the team is his supporting cast.

After sailing through his first eight games of the season (this is the part of the episode where Mike has some sure-fire way to cheat on his homework and everything goes as planed), Clark has drastically slowed down performance wise. He was knocked out of the win at Ohio State in the fourth quarter by a mild concussion, and threw a late interception the following week, which led to Iowa's game-winning field goal that snuffed out the BCS championship dreams. (This is part in the episode where Mike’s failproof plan fails, and things begin to fall apart).

After 2 fumbles (one inside the 5-yard-line) and an interception in the 34-7 win against Indiana, it's obvious Clark isn't playing his finest football. He's even admitted that "it can't happen, it just can't happen", speaking of the turnovers.

However, going into this week’s game against 15th ranked Michigan State, there is room for hope. Much like how Mike Seaver was always able to learn from his mistakes and make good for them - Clark did seem to gain some confidence in his throwing and running ability as his passes were crisper and he no longer hesitated to run the ball in the second half against Indiana. (This is part of the episode right before the end credits when everything is working it’s way out, Mike realizes the error of his ways, and plays a nice game of basketball with his father (Alan Thicke) in the driveway.

The Nittany Lions have a lot of work to do, and although they have Joe Paterno helping them through these tough times instead of Alan Thicke, they should be able to come together and rally around Clark into a Big Ten Championship and the Rose Bowl.

The Growing Pains theme song might state "as long as we've got each other", but the Lions have much more than that. They have the entire Nittany Nation behind them as they move past their growing pains, past Michigan State, and into the history books as 2008 Big Ten Champions.