Penn State's McGloin's elbow is fine, will be OK for Saturday

Matt McGloin's elbow is doing just fine, the quarterback insisted in a conference call on Wednesday.

The senior injured his elbow twice in the second quarter of Saturday's game -- missing several drives while receiving treatment in the locker room -- and did not return until midway through the third quarter.

McGloin did not throw during practice on Monday, but was back at it Tuesday.

"I threw a ton of balls [Tuesday]," McGloin said. "It feels great."

Coach Bill O'Brien said yesterday he expects McGloin to be fine for Saturday's game against Navy.

Here are a few more notes from the conference call with McGloin, who is currently third in the Big Ten at 228.5 passing yards per game:

- McGloin said the Nittany Lions' morale is fine, despite their 0-2 record. "Nothings changed," McGloin said. "We're still playing with a chip on our shoulder, we're still playing as hard as we can, we're still preparing as hard as we can. This team has a lot of fight in it."

-The quarterback was quite candid when asked how his confidence has changed this season with no quarterback controversy. Having the entire coaching staff behind him is huge, he said. "It allows you to be more relaxed out there, have more fun playing the game, not having to pressure yourself into try to force the ball down field or force plays that aren't there," McGloin said. Is that a big reason for his success so far? "Yeah, I would definitely say so," McGloin said.

-McGloin was surprised by wide receiver Shawney Kersey's departure. "But at the same time, we can't focus on what other people decide to do," McGloin said. "We just have to focus on the people we have there now."

-The quarterback said he has no doubt that the other wide receivers -- McGloin mentions Eugene Lewis, Brandon Felder, Trevor Williams -- will step up to fill the void.

- McGloin said Paul Jones has done a "good job" of transitioning to tight end. "He's a good athlete for us, he's got some great hands," McGloin said. "Hopefully we'll be able to get him the ball in space and he'll be able to make some plays for us." McGloin said it's not an issue of Jones learning the routes -- quarterbacks are supposed to know every route on every formation anyway, so it shouldn't be difficult for Jones to pick up.

-McGloin said the team definitely has confidence with its fourth down conversion success rate (5-of-7). However there's room for improvement. "If we're getting five of seven fourth downs, we've got to be able to get in the red zone and score on top of that," he said.

-Emily Kaplan