Blue White Illustrated

F A S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R L Y L O O K against Rutgers the following week, Levis struggled throwing the ball, hitting only 8 of 14 attempts for 81 yards. He was very effective on the ground, running for 108 yards in a 27-6 victory. Levis will no doubt be given a chance to challenge Clifford in the off-season; no one is supposed to feel too secure on a Franklin-coached team. But it would be an enormous upset if the strong-armed sophomore-to-be were to unseat the Lions' incumbent. As for the third-team spot, it appears to be a dead heat between Roberson and Johnson. Throughout the season, they were listed with an "or" between their names on the official depth chart. For what it's worth, Roberson was tapped to finish off the win over Rutgers. Maybe that's a sign that he's got the edge over Johnson at the moment, but given that they've only been on campus for a year, this battle is just getting started. The Blue-White Game may give us a better idea of where things stand behind the two. The spring game will also mark the debut of new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. Ordinarily, a change in coordi- nators might seem like a potential stum- bling block; think about how long it took for Michigan to adapt to Josh Gattis's sys- tem this past season. But Franklin said one of the staff's top priorities when it went looking for Ricky Rahne's replace- ment was to find someone who could adapt to the system and terminology that Penn State was already using. There's ample reason to believe that this will be a smooth transition for the quarterbacks. QUOTABLE Clifford on Kirk Ciarrocca: "I've heard so many good things. I actu- ally just got a text from Tanner Morgan, Minnesota's quarterback, and he said nothing but good things about Coach Ciarrocca." RUNNING BACK KEY RETURNEES Journey Brown, Noah Cain, Devyn Ford, Ricky Slade KEY LOSSES None NEWCOMERS Caziah Holmes, Keyvone Lee OUTLOOK As is the case at quarterback, T he lesson of Noah Cain's true freshman season at Penn State wasn't the one the running back would have anticipated. After arriving on campus last Janu- ary, Cain joined a backfield that al- ready featured sophomore returnees Ricky Slade and Journey Brown and was soon to welcome another highly touted freshman, Devyn Ford. Given the circumstances, the newcomer from Louisiana knew that it was likely he would have to share carries his first year. That he established himself dur- ing spring practice as someone who would probably get reps in the fall was an accomplishment in itself. But after demonstrating his ability early and often – so much so that he became the Nittany Lions' starting running back before the end of Octo- ber – Cain found himself having to deal with a different kind of challenge. He suffered an injury in Penn State's visit to Michigan State, forcing him to the bench just six carries into his first career start. Cain received only one carry in Penn State's last four regular- season games, and the disappoint- ment of having to sit out was hard to shake. "This was my first time having an in- jury that set me out for that amount of time. It was rough," Cain said. "These past two months have been nothing but hard. "And honestly, that hurt for me, be- cause that was the first game I started. I thought it was just temporary, but then as time went on, it just kept nag- ging and nagging. I thought I was ready to play and keep going to work, but Coach Franklin had the best interest for me and my future, so I appreciate them." Cain's strong performance in Penn State's 53-39 Cotton Bowl win helped to provide an uplifting counter to those frustrations. Supplying the Nit- tany Lions with 92 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 15 carries, Cain helped pace Penn State's dominant rushing effort alongside Brown. In the process, he built on a sterling debut season, finishing with 443 yards and eight rushing touchdowns on 84 at- tempts, setting a school record for rushing TDs by a freshman. To get to that point, Cain had to overcome two hurdles. First, he needed to get healthy again. Second, he had to get past the disap- pointment that accompanied the undisclosed injury, which nagged from one week to the next through the rest of the regular season. Prior to the Cotton Bowl, James Franklin said he was hopeful that Cain would ultimately benefit from having to show resilience in his first college season. "I think a lot of times these guys are facing [athletic] adversity for the first time," Franklin said. "So for him, he's such a competitor, football is very im- DIVIDE AND CONQUER | Noah Cain readily adapted to PSU's share-the-load approach in the backfield. But a midseason injury proved more frustrating for the freshman RB

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