Blue White Illustrated

| S ure, it was only a scrimmage. But just because there wasn't a raucous crowd looking on or a primetime audience tuning in doesn't mean that it didn't count. In a world as competitive as the one that the Penn State football team inhabits, someone is always keeping score. So when the Nittany Lions' first-team offense, trailing by five points, faced fourth-and-goal on the final play of an- other afternoon spent sparring with the first-team defense, DaeSean Hamilton was eager to leave the field victorious. "It was the last play of the game," the veteran receiver recalled, "and we ran a little op- tion route in the slot. I won on my de- fender, and we ended the practice that way. I was really happy." The defender in question was senior safety Malik Golden. He and Hamilton had been engaged in battles throughout preseason camp – "Great battles," Hamil- ton said – and their matchup on the goal line was evidently among the more con- tentious of the month leading up to Penn State's opener against Kent State. "He didn't talk to me for a few days after that," Hamilton said, flashing a sly smile. "It's [because of] all the competitiveness. Ba- sically, we've just been going at each other all camp long." Now that camp is over, those battles are against opposing secondaries, and the Lions are expected to win their share. Maybe more than their share. The re- ceiver corps has been hailed as one of the best in the Big Ten and perhaps even one of the best in the coun- try, ranking fifth behind only Clemson, Ala- bama, Michigan and Oregon in Fox Sports analyst Bruce Feldman's survey of the nation's top units. Why so high? Just look at the personnel. Hamilton, a redshirt junior, led the Big Ten with 82 receptions two years ago and re- cently surpassed 1,500 career receiving yards. Junior Chris Godwin finished sec- ond in the conference and 24th in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 1,101 re- ceiving yards during a breakout sopho- more season and is on this year's Biletnikoff Award watch list. Junior Saeed Blacknall is a former four-star recruit with a penchant for the long ball, as evi- denced by his team-high average of 31 yards per catch a year ago. And those are just the starters. The Nit- tany Lions have also amassed a group of promising freshmen and sophomores who offer both game-breaking speed (DeAndre Thompkins, Brandon Polk) and impressive size (Juwan Johnson, Irvin Charles). "We don't just have talent, but we have depth and talent," first-year offensive co- ordinator Joe Moorhead said before the start of the season. "I'm not just looking at the guys who are penciled in to be starters, but their backups as well. ... We have outside receivers with Saeed and Chris, and then our slot receivers with DaeSean and some of the other guys. They're just prototypes for the system, so certainly with their athletic ability and playmaking skill, we're looking for big things from the receiving corps this year." Some big things have already happened. In the opener against Kent State, Thomp- kins made a great leaping catch, tumbling over backward with the football in his arms for a 43-yard gain to set up a field goal. A week later at Pitt, he had one of the afternoon's most remarkable mo- ments when he made a 39-yard over-the- shoulder catch using only his left arm, and with Pitt cornerback Ryan Lewis lit- erally hanging off his back. The reception, one of three on the day, including a late fourth-down conversion that kept Penn State's comeback hopes alive, was de- scribed by sportswriters and bloggers as everything from "nifty" to "INSANE." But Thompkins' eye-opening start ap- parently didn't faze anyone on the Penn DEEP THINKER Blacknall was the Lions' most effec- tive deep threat last sea- sons. As a sophomore, he averaged a team-best 31 yards per catch, and he opened his junior season with a 21-yard reception against Kent State. How- ever, Blacknall missed the Pitt and Temple games with an injury. Photo by Steve Manuel

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