Before last year's renaissance, quarterbacks coach and famous son Jay Paterno took a lot of heat for Penn State's usually paleolithic offense, much of it directly due to the consistent failure of Anthony Morelli to fulfill his five-star, all-world recruiting hype in 2006 and 2007. A scout summed it up before Morelli entered the '08 draft: "He has all the tools you look for in a QB; an athletic body, very strong throwing arm and far better movement then I had expected, but is acutely under coached and unprepared for the job of being a professional QB." Ouch.
But maybe, Papa Paterno suggested Monday, that was because Jay wasn't all that enamored with Morelli himself:
As a sophomore in 2007, [Daryll] Clark was the backup to senior Anthony Morelli. As the Nittany Lions trudged through an 8-4 regular season, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno wanted to get Clark some snaps in live action, but head coach Joe Paterno refused.
"I thought it would discourage the kid that we were using," Paterno said of Morelli. ... "I thought the kid we were using had the potential to be a good quarterback. I blew that one."
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