Tough assignment
STATE COLLEGE— If coaches won points for honesty, that might help the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers get on the scoreboard when they serve as the season-opening opponent for No. 22 Penn State.
And, to top it off, the Championship Subdivision school could go down Saturday as a footnote on Joe Paterno's lengthy resume since the Hall of Fame coach is one shy of the 373 victories owned by Florida State's Bobby Bowden for most wins among major college coaches.
"I tell my buddies who play golf, it's like you're going out to play (PGA golfers Phil) Mickelson or Tiger Woods head-to-head. 'How would you do without a handicap,"' Coastal Carolina coach David Bennett said. "There's no handicap involved with this."
Coastal Carolina has had some success in its brief, six-year history of playing football, winning the Big South from 2004 to 2006. They were 5-6 last season. Penn State will be the program's first Bowl Subdivision opponent.
Knowing his squad is overmatched, the easygoing Bennett will start by aiming for small victories on Saturday, like getting key first downs, and making the Nittany Lions punt.
"You want to go up there, do well, win some battles," Bennett said. "You don't want to go up there and just have them run roughshod on you. That's not good. That wouldn't be good."
Darryl Clark couldn't have asked for a better opponent to ease into his new job as starting quarterback in what could be the debut of the Nittany Lions' retooled offense. Paterno's son and quarterbacks coach, Jay Paterno, has dubbed it the "Spread HD."
"On the way to the stadium, I don't know, I'll probably be a little overwhelmed," Clark said about his starting debut after sitting for two years behind Anthony Morelli. "It's a dream come true."
Paterno often parcels out similar phrases to describe opponents, making teams like Coastal Carolina often sound like South Carolina.
"And when you look at the tapes of them, they've got some awfully good athletes," Paterno said. "And as I said, they're very, very well-coached."
There are a couple concerns, though not big headaches, on the Penn State defense. First, "Linebacker U." is without a star linebacker this year after Sean Lee went down with a knee injury in spring practice. Paterno hopes senior Tyrell Sales, a Butler graduate, can provide leadership for a young but otherwise promising unit.
The secondary, which took some lumps at times last year for more porous-than-usual pass coverage, wants to create more turnovers, safety Anthony Scirrotto said.
To compare the programs, just look at each school's home fields. With Michigan Stadium under renovation, Beaver Stadium is temporarily the country's largest with a seating capacity of 107,000.
Coastal Carolina's Brooks Stadium holds more than 7,300.
