Devlin a presence at Penn State spring practice

It wasn't even five minutes into Penn State's fourth spring practice before Pat Devlin's name came up.

"Things would have been fine if the guy from your area, Pat Devlin, was here," a university employee, who didn't want to be identified, said to a member of the Philadelphia media.

Similar sentiments may come from Nittany Lions fans if Penn State's quarterbacks struggle in Saturday's Blue-White spring game at Beaver Stadium.

That's because two inexperienced signal-callers - Kevin Newsome and former walk-on Matt McGloin - are the front-runners to replace the departed Daryll Clark.

It's a competition Penn State would have avoided had Devlin, a former Downingtown East High quarterback, not transferred to Delaware last year. He will be a fifth-year senior.

Had he stayed at Penn State, Devlin would likely be this season's starter for the Lions.

Instead, coach Joe Paterno said last month "there is no timetable" in naming Clark's replacement. He added that Penn State planned to take a step-by-step process in determining one.

Newsome, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound sophomore, was Clark's backup last season.

The Portsmouth, Va., native completed 8 of 11 passes for 66 yards and rushed 20 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns in mostly a mop-up role last season.

The dual-threat quarterback was more impressive running the ball than throwing it during an April 10 scrimmage.

According to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Newsome, who worked with the first- team offense at the start of the scrimmage, was hard to catch when breaking away from pass rushes.

However, he struggled in the passing game, as several of his throws sailed incomplete.

McGloin, a 6-1, 204-pound junior out of Scranton who saw little action last season, completed several deep passes during the scrimmage. But he fumbled a snap and mistakenly tried to complete a screen pass to an offensive lineman.

"The quarterbacks are very average, but they are young," Paterno said. "Hopefully, over a period of time, they will get better."

Graham Zug, a senior wideout, has confidence in the signal-callers.

"I've seen a lot of improvement from both of them just learning how to read defenses, how to learn to be comfortable in the pocket," said Zug, who caught 46 passes for 600 yards and a team-leading seven touchdowns last season. "There is a lot of progress being made by both of them."

The wideout added that he's looking to make every catch to help the eventual starting quarterback succeed.

"That's something that can really help them out, to build their confidence," Zug said.

If he and the other receivers do that, Zug said, the quarterbacks will have confidence in the receivers to make plays.

While Penn State tries to build confidence, Devlin will look to improve on his completing 220 of 344 passes (63.9 percent) for 2,664 yards and 16 touchdowns for the Blue Hens last season.