But every now and then, JoePa and his staff have to find touches for more compact backs whose primary asset is their ability to gain a lot of ground in a hurry. Lydell Mitchell and Blair Thomas were under 6-feet tall and 200 pounds, but rank among the most productive runners ever in Happy Valley. Last season's leading rusher, 5-9, 203-pound Rodney Kinlaw, was a pleasant surprise in picking up 1,329 yards, most of which came after starting tailback Austin Scott was suspended for a violation of team rules.

Line all of them up in their respective primes for a 40-yard dash, however, and the likelihood is that they would be inhaling dust kicked up by Stephfon Green, the 5-10, 189-pound redshirt freshman from the Bronx, N.Y., who can turn any play into a quick six points.

The Nittany Lions' 66-10 rout of outmanned Coastal Carolina on Saturday in Beaver Stadium made for a nice coming-out party for quite a few new faces, but perhaps the most anticipated unveiling involved one of the fastest players ever to wear the home team's blue and white. Penn State moved from 22nd to 19th in this week's Associated Press poll.

Green's first carry, in the second quarter, went for 22 yards and generated a buzz among the 106,577 spectators. His teammates took notice, too.

"When I saw Stephfon break that 22-yarder, that got me excited," said linebacker Bani Gbadyu, who anticipates many more long gainers from No. 21.

Only the third tailback to enter the game - behind starter Evan Royster and nominal third-teamer Brent Carter - Green finished the afternoon as the Lions' leading rusher with 89 yards on 10 carries, in addition to scoring two touchdowns.

Royster and Carter also put up impressive numbers, Royster carrying eight times for 64 yards and three touchdowns and Carter nine times for 67 yards as Penn State shredded the Coastal Carolina defense for 594 total yards and 344 rushing yards.

The going figures to be tougher - much tougher - this Saturday against visiting Oregon State (0-1), of the Pac-10 Conference. But if Green again finds himself with a bit of running room, it's a good bet the Beavers will find him as difficult to catch as did the Chanticleers.

"Once you put me in, I try not to disappoint," Green said. "I feel real good about my debut. I feel real good about everybody's debut."

Green has been something of an open secret since the Blue-White spring game. On his very first carry in that intrasquad contest, he gave fans a glimpse of his game-breaking potential when he found a hole in the left side, veered to the sideline and sprinted to the end zone, untouched, for a 57-yard touchdown.

So has Green really been timed in 4.25 seconds for the 40? If the stopwatch readings are accurate, that would make him the fastest player on the squad, swifter even than wide receiver Derrick Williams and cornerback A.J. Wallace. Williams, a senior, had an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Coastal Carolina.

"Oh, yeah," said Royster, a redshirt sophomore who, at 6-1 and 211 pounds, is more conventionally packaged for heavy-duty usage. "Stephfon is just unbelievably fast. Crazy-fast."

Left tackle Gerald Cadogan said it's Green's crazy-fast speed that has created an aura of anticipation that hadn't greeted a Penn State freshman since Williams and cornerback Justin King, a rookie now on the St. Louis Rams' injured-reserve list, brought their sprinters' resumes to State College in 2005.

"It's super exciting for us to know we have a guy that, if we can give him even a little crease, can go the distance," Cadogan said of Green.

It will be interesting to see whether Paterno employs Green as a situational backup to Royster, and maybe even Carter, a 6-2, 211-pound redshirt sophomore. When he was drafted by the Eagles in the third round of the 2002 NFL draft, Villanova product Brian Westbrook - whose size (5-10, 203), speed and elusiveness mirror those of Green - was seen more as a change-of-pace type until he demonstrated he could shoulder a featured back's workload.

Green had some injury issues at John F. Kennedy High, and his limited amount of carries suggests that he is more Ferrari than Mack truck. He knows what the doubters are saying: looks great on the showroom floor, infrequently gets out of the garage.

It's an unfair rap, insists Green, who rushed for a relatively pedestrian 740 yards and 10 touchdowns as a high school senior. But, he said, that wasn't entirely his fault.

"I don't like to seem cocky, but I was out of most games by halftime," Green said. "Before I got hurt, I had 740 yards on only 50 carries. Do the math. That's 14.8 yards per carry. In one game, I had only six carries but gained 330 yards.

"I really don't like it when somebody says I'm just a third-down [back] or situational back. That's like an insult. If I had to, I could handle 25 carries a game, easy. But that's not up to me." *