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P HIL'S C ORNE R Penn State's quarterbacks are the main off-season storyline Going into the 2012 season, there were college football analysts who said Penn State had the worst quarterback situation in the Big Ten. Matt McGloin had an inconsistent 2011 season. He completed just 125 of 231 passes for 1,571 yards and ranked No. 10 in the conference in passing efficiency (118.3 rating). He totaled just eight touchdowns and threw five interceptions. With the transfer of backup Rob Bolden to LSU, and an uncertain academic situation surrounding Paul Jones, the out- Steve Manuel GAME ON Bench is the only quarterback on the Nittany Lions' roster with Division I game experience. F E B R U A R Y look for Penn State at quarterback going into the 2012 season looked bleak, to say the least. When you add the fact that Penn State's top three wide receivers from the year before were no longer on the roster, no one expected McGloin to improve upon his passing numbers from the 2011 season. That type of miracle didn't appear to be in the cards for McGloin or for Penn State's new quarterbacks coach, Charlie Fisher. But, believe it or not, that is exactly what happened. O'Brien, Fisher and McGloin proved all the skeptics wrong. McGloin finished the 2012 season as the Big Ten's No. 1 passer, completing 60.5 percent of his passes for 3,266 yards with 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions. What O'Brien and Fisher did with McGloin represents the biggest turnaround by a specific player that I've seen in the 32 years I've been covering Penn State football. Keeping that in mind, it's easy to understand what the No. 1 storyline of spring practice and winter workouts is: Who will replace McGloin? Until December, the only scholarship quarterback on Penn State's spring roster was sophomore Steven Bench. In 2012 Bench saw extremely limited action. He played in just two games (Virginia and Purdue) while completing just 2 of 8 passes for 12 yards. Seven of Bench's eight pass attempts came against Virginia when McGloin was on the sidelines with a slight injury to his throwing elbow. Bench's limited experience is one of the reasons why O'Brien and Fisher targeted five junior college quarterbacks throughout the entire 2012 season. At first, it appeared Penn State was set to sign Jake Waters, the nation's No. 1rated junior college quarterback, from Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. But Waters surprised O'Brien and Fisher when he an7 , 2 0 1 3 6 nounced for Kansas State at a press conference on Dec. 13. Within 36 hours they landed the second junior college quarterback on their board: Tyler Ferguson of College of the Sequoias in California. Ferguson, who will have four years to complete three years of eligibility, had a highly successful 2012 season. He completed close to 66 percent of his passes for 2,655 yards and 26 touchdowns. Dennis Manning, Ferguson's former head coach at Ridgeview High School in Bakersfield, Calif., stated that he expects Ferguson to challenge for the starting job at Penn State this spring after enrolling in January. "Tyler was having a great season for us back in 2011," Manning said. "We were 8-0 and we were getting ready for the playoffs when Tyler broke his collarbone. "He was throwing for about 250 yards per game. Tyler is your typical pro-style NFL quarterback. He can throw the ball deep with a great deal of accuracy. I don't know if there is a quarterback around with a stronger arm than Tyler. "Tyler is a competitor, and he'll be ready to challenge for the starting quarterback job at Penn State this spring." There will be two additional quarterbacks available for spring practice: D.J. Crook of Worcester (Mass.) Academy and Austin Whipple from the Salisbury School in Salisbury, Conn. Whipple's father, Mark, was quarterbacks coach for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. Then in June, Penn State's depth at quarterback will increase even more with the arrival of five-star quarterback Christian Hackenberg and walk-on Jack Seymour of Park Tudor School in Indianapolis. Seymour chose to walk on at Penn State rather than pursue scholarship offers from Ball State, Southern Illinois and Western Michigan. With Bench returning and Ferguson, Crook, Whipple and Seymour entering the fray, O'Brien and Fisher have the opportunity to redshirt Hackenberg, if that appears to be the best course of action. Penn State has a lot more options at the position than it had only a couple of months ago. Whichever quarterback wins the starting job, he'll have an experienced offensive line, a solid running game and maybe the best unit of wide receivers and tight ends in the Big Ten at his disposal. The quarterback will be the key to success for Penn State's offense in 2013. Right now it's the one element of the Nittany Lions' offense that is an unknown quantity. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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