Clark will start

It's Daryll Clark.

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno announced today that senior Daryll Clark will start for Saturday's season opener over redshirt sophomore Pat Devlin and senior Paul Cianciolo.

"We're going to start Clark," Paterno said during his first weekly teleconference of the season. "We'll probably play Devlin, for sure, some. And the other kid that I really think that we have to give him a shot sometime is Cianciolo."
The race for the coveted starting spot, however, was essentially down to Clark and Devlin.

"Clark's had a little bit more experience," Paterno said. "He had a really good spring practice and really good preseason."

The 6-foot-2, 231-pound Clark was the backup to Anthony Morelli the last two seasons, but didn't play much until the Alamo Bowl last season when he ran for 50 yards and a touchdown on five carries. Devlin, from Downingtown, has thrown only one pass at Penn State and that was during mop-up duty.

Paterno wouldn't say if Clark had the starting job beyond the first game, let alone the entire season.
"We have a fluid situation here," he said.

The 81-year-old coach, who begins his 43 season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, said that he sat down with all three players yesterday and told them of his decision.

"Three guys sitting around a table," Paterno said. "I'm telling them all what's going to be obvious. [Clark] smiles. I said to the other two kids, 'You guys OK with that?'

"Yeah."

"Let's go win."

"That's it," Paterno said. "We're talking about a three-, four-minute meeting."