By Michael Casagrande
sports@timesfreepress.com
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Penn State quarterback Rob Bolden was making a rookie mistake, so his veteran offensive guard called it to his attention.
Stefen Wisniewski made sure the freshman starter realized he’d have to be much louder in the huddle Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium, when the Nittany Lions challenge top-ranked Alabama.
“We had to remind him, in Alabama there are going to be 100,000 fans and they aren’t going to be for us,” Wisniewski said.
Bolden made his collegiate debut in front of a friendly group of a similar size last Saturday in Happy Valley, and it went very well. He was the Big Ten freshman of the week after completing 20 of 29 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns in a 44-14 win over Football Championship Subdivision opponent Youngstown State.
That came just days after Penn State coach Joe Paterno chose Bolden over a host of other young quarterbacks to become the first newcomer ever to start under center in a Nittany Lions season opener.
Coming out of Orchard Lake, Mich., Bolden was ranked eighth among high school quarterbacks by Scout.com – six spots behind Alabama backup Phillip Sims. But with the graduation of veteran starter Daryll Clark and an absence of qualified returning backups, Bolden jumped right into the competition along with fellow true freshman Paul Jones and sophomores Matt McGloin and Kevin Newsome.
Paterno said after Saturday’s win that he would go back and forth several times a day when trying to decide which youngster should get the call. Even Penn State players were in the dark during game week.
“We’re just as clueless as all you guys out there,” receiver Derek Moye told reporters last Wednesday morning. “My mom just asked me the other day. I told her honestly I had no clue.”
From his initial video study, Alabama coach Nick Saban was impressed with Paterno’s choice.
“You would never know he was a freshman, that’s for sure,” Saban said. “He has a very good arm and is very accurate. He had a lot of poise. They didn’t have any game-management issues, fumbled snaps, delay of games. The guy hard counts like a veteran and draws the other team off sides.”
Second-year Alabama starter Greg McElroy, by contrast, was a three-year backup to John Parker Wilson.
McElroy couldn’t imagine what it would have been line to step into action in Bryant-Denny as a teenager.
“I would have gotten killed. I was skinny,” McElroy said. “The game was moving a hundred miles an hour for me. I don’t think I was as highly touted as he was coming out of high school. That’s OK. We make do with what we’ve got. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon. For some people, not so much. It worked out for me, I guess, in the long run, right?”
Coming out of high school, Bolden carried the tag of a dual-threat quarterback. He recorded just one rushing attempt Saturday while spending most of his time in the well-protected pocket and picking apart the Youngstown defense.
Of course, he has one of the Nittany Lions’ best running backs ever in the backfield with him. Evan Royster ran for just 40 yards Saturday, but he’s only 441 yards away from breaking Curt Warner’s school rushing record of 3,398 set in 1982.