It was a beautiful day in Happy Valley for the annual Blue-White Scrimmage game.  Actually, it very closely treaded the line between “beautiful” and “sweltering.”  Right now, it’s about 84 degrees, and it felt a lot hotter on those bleacher seats.  We’ll have a full write-up about the game coming up when we get full stats, either later today or tomorrow, but here are my quick initial thoughts.

We have stats! GoPSUSports has a box score up, and all stats come from there.

• The white squad, which consisted of the 1st team defense and the 2nd team offense defeated the blue squad, which was, obviously, the 2nd string defense and offensive starters, by a score of 21-16.
• Daryll Clark and Evan Royster both played very sparingly.  Clark looked sharp, hitting on almost all of his pass attempts with the exception of an Andrew Quarless drop.  Clark, who was the only player in a red jersey, played exclusively in the first quarter, and completed 10 of 13 attempts for 123 yards.  Royster had 3 rushes for 21 yards
• Joe Suhey got a ton of touches and looked surprisingly good.  He had a few sweeps and outside runs and did a good job turning the corner.  He also punched in a short run for the game’s first touchdown.  He was used both at FB and at RB, and even caught a few balls out of the backfield, finishing with 41 all purpose yards.
• The 1st team wide receivers were Graham Zug, Derek Moye, and Chaz Powell.  Brett Brackett, A.J. Price, and James McDonald worked exclusively with the White Team.
• Graham Zug was everywhere, catching balls (he was the game’s leading receiver with 4 catches for 62 yards), and took a few reps on punt returns.  Derek Moye also looked very solid with a handful of catches, including a 28 yarder.
• Speaking of punt returns, Evan Royster tried catching a few balls back there.  The special teams game was very toned down, as there were no kick returns, no rushing the punter, and automatic fair catches.
• The tight ends looked pretty good.  Quarless had 4 catches for 52 yards and had a drop with Knowledge Timmons closing quickly, Mickey Shuler caught one ball, and Andrew Szczerba had another big Blue/White Game, with a couple catches up the seam, and 39 yards total.
• Everyone who says that Kevin Newsome has to work on his mechanics is right.  Newsome struggled on straight drop-backs, preferring to throw on the move, where he looked very comfortable.  Newsome, who played with the blue team, only ran once, beating Jack Crawford to the outside for a 5 yard pickup.  He has a very strong arm but most of his throws were short check downs, finishing with 9 completions for just 71 yards.  He’s very raw, but will be really good someady.
• Matt McGloin, on the other hand, looked incredible, and ready to step in immediately.  He looks bigger than his measurables, and threw very well today.  He faced pressure and did a great job avoiding the rush, keeping his eyes downfield, and finding the open receiver.  He threw, I believe, two touchdown passes, including what would be the game winner, a nice 17-yard toss on the run to JD Mason.  Working with both teams, McGloin saw the most playing time of any QB, completing 9 of 13 passes for 111 yards.
• McGloin also took off for a 28 yard run, sprung by a huge block from walk-on tight end Gino Raineri.  I almost hate to say it, but he is leaps and bounds ahead of Kevin Newsome at this point.  No doubt that he was today’s MVP.
• Andrew Dailey and Drew Astorino started at safety for the white team, with Gerald Hodges and Nick Sukay starting for the blue.  Hodges was the most visible, flying around the field to make, arguably, the biggest hit of the day on A.J. Price coming across the middle.
• Knowledge Timmons took a handoff around the end for 9 yards on the second to last play of the game.
• There was only one turnover, a botched snap fumble recovered by Jon Ditto.  Ditto, who played sparingly, had just destroyed Mark Wedderburn to force an incompletion on the previous play.  Two other fumbles were recovered, a botched snap and a botched handoff.
• With 3:24 on the clock, and trailing by 5, Shane McGregor got the ball for the blue team.  Three plays, and -20 yards later, Ryan Breen was on to punt.
• Breen’s punts were very hit-or-miss.  He shanked two out of bounds, but also crushed a 57 yarder to the sideline.
• Anthony Fera missed a point after attempt that sailed wide left, but came back to hit one later in the game.
• Shaine Thompson got a bunch of handoffs, and didn’t gain more than 2 on any of them.  In fact, he had -6 yards on 8 rushes.  Brandon Beachum looked a lot more confident, hitting holes very strongly for solid gains, finishing with a game-high 38 rush yards.
• Tom Golarz and Matt Kenney had the only sacks of the day, against the 4th and 5th stringers John Kelly and Shane McGregor
• The only injured players were Pete Massaro and Ako Poti, each of whom walked off with help from the coaches.
• Sean Lee, Brent Carter, Jerome Hayes, A.J. Wallace, and Navorro Bowman, and a few others that I can’t think of right now, didn’t suit up for the game.
• They announced spring practice award winners at halftime.  Graham Zug and Michael Mauti were honored as the Worrell and O’Hara Award winners for the offense and defense, respectively, and the all around Patrick Award for total committment was given to Brett Brackett.
• The attendance was announced at a new-record 76,500.  At its peak (just before halftime), the entire west and south sides were full, and about 90% of the east and north sides were, too.
• I didn’t realize what a big event the Blue-White game was.  In addition to the game, there was practically a country fair out in the parking lot, with rides, food stands, and vendors hawking their wares.

As Jay Paterno said on his Twitter, this game was played very conservatively.  Most runs were right into the line, and the majority of the passes were either quick outs or short dump offs over the middle.  There was no blitzing.  I know, the game probably means little, but it was good to watch some of the young guys (especially McGloin and Newsome) get practice in a game situation.