Blue White Illustrated

| oes Bill Belton have something to prove after a sophomore season in which he made a decidedly smaller impact than anticipated? Maybe to the rest of the world he does. To himself? Not so much. Belton has lost none of the self-assurance that helped him develop into an All-State high school quarterback in southern New Jersey and propelled him to a spot in the Nittany Lions' opening-day starting lineup last season. Given a chance, he insists, he'll get the job done. "The coaches know what I can do. I know what I can do," Belton said at Penn State's media day on Aug. 8. "It really doesn't matter what the outside world thinks. It's all about us in the locker room." Even so, he said, "people talk, people say things. After a while, it starts to get under your skin. So I personally need to go out and prove myself." One of the team's bigger Twitter devotees, Belton no doubt is aware of what people are chattering about online – or not chattering about, as the case may be. After generating plenty of buzz heading into last season, he's been overshadowed lately by the team's other ZACH ZWINAK Zach Zwinak can't say much about the wrist injury he suffered last April in the Blue-White Game. At Penn State's media day Aug. 8, he redirected all questions about his health to the coaching staff, declining to say whether he'd been cleared to take part in contact drills or even to describe what happened to him in the spring game. The one thing he was willing to say is that he plans on being ready for Penn State's opener. Asked whether he would be on the field Aug. 31 when the Lions face Syracuse in East Rutherford, N.J., the junior running back was emphatic: "Absolutely." Coming off a 1,000-yard season in 2012, Zwinak is listed first on Penn State's official preseason depth chart, and coach Bill O'Brien said he's "doing fine." Zwinak said the injury to his left wrist didn't hamper him during off- season conditioning. He participated in Lift for Life in July and said he weighs about 235 pounds going into the season, roughly the same as his playing weight last year. The Lions appear to have a bit more depth than they did in 2012, with freshman Akeel Lynch joining Zwinak and junior Bill Belton in the backfield after redshirting last season. O'Brien said all three running backs will play this fall. Which is fine with Zwinak. "We're all coming out and getting better every day," he said. "We help each other a lot, and we push each other. We strive as a whole running back unit to be good, no matter who's in the game." Zwinak accounted for 203 of the team's 475 rushing attempts last season even though he began the year as a little-used backup and didn't emerge as the starter until week nine at Purdue. He was reluctant to speculate at Bill Anderson media day about how the running backs will divide up the carries – that's another question for the coaching staff, he said – but he has embraced the competition. "You've just got to go out and practice as hard as you can – every day, 100 percent, and continue to get better," Zwinak said. "You can never not get better." – M.H.

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