The most telling aspect of Saturday's strangely sultry afternoon in Beaver Stadium will be the guys throwing the football -- and the ones catching it.

Particularly, one very young guy throwing the football.

The Blue-White Game, for all of its no-name practice feel, usually still has something football-related worth focusing on for fans soaking up the tailgate beverages, free admission and easy autographs.

A few years ago, it was the lure of Derrick Williams and Justin King streaking all over the field to reinvent an offense.

Then, it was the debut of big-armed Anthony Morelli.

Then came time to judge Daryll Clark's throwing ability for the first time.

Now, all eyes will be on true freshman backup quarterback Kevin Newsome, who will surely run one of the teams on Saturday.

He is built big with speed and a plenty powerful arm, in the mold of Clark, his mentor.

And Newsome will be an important backup option, considering how Clark has already been knocked out of two games with concussions.

Penn State only has these two scholarship quarterback.

"He's way more on time with his passes than he was when he first came out at the start of spring practice," Clark said. "Yeah, the defensive line ... they did a good job of getting after him a little bit and getting him frustrated at times. And you know, he's young, so that's natural.

"It's important that one of the older guys like myself got to him and let him know that, 'Hey, everything's going to

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be all right.' He's a work in progress, but he's doing very well now. Honestly, I think he's going to play very, very well (Saturday). I think he's going to light the scoreboard up."

Of course, Clark will play, too. But he already made his statement as a thrower, runner and leader last fall. His biggest concern this season will be to avoid unnecessary contact when running the football.

He plans on wearing a red jersey today, meaning that he cannot get hit.

"I'm going to really work on protecting my body," Clark said. "Some hits that I took last year I'm going to try not to take those hits -- slide or get out of bounds because I can't afford to have another concussion. I want to be in every play of the season."

The biggest dilemma, though, probably concerns who these two will throw to.

With the top three wideouts graduated, the Lions will turn to a mix of sizes, skills and experience, including tall targets in Derek Moye and Brett Brackett, possession receiver Graham Zug and do-it-all Chaz Powell, a Susquehannock High grad.

When Clark was asked to name someone who surprised him during spring workouts, he said, "Up until he hurt his ankle, I'd have to say Chaz has really come on strong."

A teammate apparently fell on Powell's ankle last week in practice, keeping him out of contact work since.

"I'm not really sure how many plays he's going to play (Saturday) because of it," Clark said. "But, you know, they're just taking it day to day. I think he rolled it pretty good, but before then he was really making a lot of plays. He was upbeat in practice, asking questions in meetings and just doing what he has to because he's going to be a guy we're going to have to call on to make plays for us."

The other receivers, as well, have only had opportunities to show glimpses so far, mostly because Williams, Jordan Norwood and Deon Butler caught the majority of passes the past few seasons.

"No one has seen Derek Moye or Brett Brackett or Graham make as many plays as the three-headed monster last year," Clark said. "But, they'll be shocked. I guarantee it. For the people who don't believe in those guys making plays, they'll be shocked ..."
fbodani@ydr.com; 771-2104