STATE COLLEGE — The star tailback in Happy Valley has turned into an offensive question mark.

This isn't the way Penn State fans envisioned Evan Royster would start a potentially record-breaking senior season, especially not with a true freshman quarterback behind center.

Three games in, Rob Bolden has solidified his hold on the QB job and bounced back from mid-game mistakes that made Saturday's 24-0 win over Kent State a little too-close-for-comfort at one point. The Nittany Lions dropped one spot to No. 23 in the AP Top 25 poll released Sunday.

In the second half Saturday, with Penn State's offense struggling after a 14-point first quarter, it was backup running back Stephfon Green — not Royster — who provided the tough carries on a 17-play, 90-yard drive to solidify the ground game.

Green finished with 59 yards on 11 carries, with all his yardage coming on nine second-half carries. Royster had 38 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown, but had just four yards on three carries after halftime — plus a fumble on the first play of the second half.

Royster did go over 3,000 yards for his career, but instead of answering questions about his latest achievement, he was nowhere to be found in the media room after the game.

It was Green who was left to answer queries about the running game.

"It's up to the guys upstairs. If it were up to me, I'd be out there every down. But it's not up to me," said Green, one of team's most verbose players. "There's no 'I' in team and I'm a team player. When the team calls my number, I'm going to fight for every inch that I can get."

As a team, it was Penn State's most impressive outing on the ground of the young season, with 162 yards on 40 carries against a Kent State defense that, statistically, was best against the rush in the country entering Saturday.

Even Bolden got in on the act, on a couple of designed runs and one scramble toward the sideline that ended in a thunderous collision with cornerback Josh Pleasant. Bolden jumped right back up, while Pleasant had to be attended for about 30 seconds before returning the huddle.

It reminded a few observers of quarterback Michael Robinson's hard running during the 2005 season — not quite the kind of scrambling that quarterback coach Jay Paterno wants his freshman to emulate.

"We have to work on that a little bit. He's not Mike Robinson. I told him, stop watching those YouTube clips of Mike running over people," he joked.

Bolden got his first rushing touchdown in the first quarter, and Royster followed five minutes later with an easy TD run up the middle from 3 yards for a 14-0 lead.

He looked like vintage Royster on the first two drives, craftily shifting away from potential tacklers when holes began to narrow.

But it turned out to be the highlight of the day for Royster, who had 27 of his 38 rushing yards in the first quarter.

The offensive line was part of the problem. Left tackle Quinn Barham said the front five got a little complacent after the success of the first two drives, and wasn't as physical the rest of the first half.

Head coach Joe Paterno lit into the front line at halftime.