But first, the senior must avoid a few potholes and potential roadblocks.

In what was called a competitive race, Clark beat out redshirt sophomore Pat Devlin as the starter for Saturday's home opener against Coastal Carolina when coach Joe Paterno informed the players of his decision Monday.

The reactions from the two players were, as expected, polar opposites. During conference calls yesterday, Clark recounted his excitement upon being told, while Devlin could do little to mask his disappointment.

But rather than bask in the glow, the 6-foot-2, 231-pound Clark said his thoughts immediately turned to his first career start after three years of waiting his turn.

"I'd be lying to you if I told you I wasn't nervous about Saturday, because I am," Clark said. "I really want everything to work out. I want everything to go as smooth as possible. But on that way over to the stadium, I'll just be real, real excited because this is a dream come true."

As is Penn State's game-day tradition, the starting quarterback has the front row seat on the ride over to Beaver Stadium and is the first to emerge from the team bus. The trip starts from Toftrees Resort, where the team stays the night before a home game. It's another team custom that the top two quarterbacks normally room together. That is where Clark expects to finally sit down with Devlin and patch up any hard feelings.

"I don't know how he's going to react to this. I'll probably know how it is in the hotel on Friday," Clark said, adding: "I completely understand. I've been there. . . . I hope it doesn't turn out to be him being so disappointed that he doesn't want to be cool with me anymore."

Devlin said that he and Clark had not spoken since the announcement, but that he expects their relationship to remain the same. "We were pretty good friends before, and I think that we will still be," Devlin said.

In these situations, it's sometimes not the combatants that are at odds but the team.

"Let's be honest. There are people on the team that want him in," Clark said. "There are people on the team that want me in. Who? I don't know."

Senior linebacker Tyrell Sales said he didn't see any signs of a house divided, although he conceded that favoritism for one quarterback over the other was only natural.

"When there's an all-out quarterback competition like that, guys in the locker room are going to start to identify with somebody more than the other," Sales said.

It's not as if the competition is over, however. Devlin will play some with the first team Saturday, and there has been no decree made beyond Coastal Carolina, although Paterno intimated Tuesday that he doesn't want Clark glancing over his shoulder after every error.

"I thought that was really important, because that let me know how much confidence that he had in me to run a successful offense," Clark said.

It was certainly not inevitable that Paterno would hand over one of his most experienced teams to Clark, a high school recruit he didn't think much of, except that maybe he would develop into a linebacker. Paterno once thought the same thing of future NFL Hall of Famer Jim Kelly.

But quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno saw something in the Youngstown, Ohio, native, enrolled Clark for one year as a prep student in the Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pa. - as an academic non-qualifier - and groomed him for two seasons at Penn State as he mostly sat behind Anthony Morelli.

And now, after biding his time, Clark finally has the keys.

"My mother always told me that the ones with the most patience are the ones that benefit the most," Clark said. "It was just something I had to go through."