Is Anthony Morelli's Job Secure?

If you were to judge Penn State quarterback Anthony Morelli solely by his numbers, you would think that the Nittany Lions have themselves a pretty good quarterback. His completion percentage could be higher than 59%, but the 757 yards, eight touchdowns, and only one interception looks pretty nice though.

As is often the case though, numbers don't tell the whole story. After Penn State lost to the Michigan Wolverines last weekend in Ann Arbor, the same questions surrounding Morelli last season came to the surface again.

Will he ever beat a good team?

Yes his numbers look good, but they came against teams like Buffalo and Notre Dame. Not exactly top flight competition. Against Michigan he completed less than half of his passes for 169 yards.

Since he became the starter last season, Morelli is 0-4 in games against Big Ten powers Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. He's yet to throw his first touchdown pass against any of them.

So the question becomes, if Morelli struggles on Saturday against the Illini in Champaign, will Joe Paterno pull him for Daryll Clark or Pat Devlin? I don't know if it means anything, but Morelli is usually made available to the local media in weekly conference calls.

Morelli hasn't been available the last few days.

Whether or not that's because Paterno doesn't want him to have to face the questions about his play, or because Joe is thinking of making a possible change, I don't know because Joe's acting like he has no idea what we're talking about.

"He was on last week, wasn't he?" Paterno said. "Nobody asked me. But if somebody had said 'What do you think?' I would have said, 'Give him a week off.' "

If Morelli continues to struggle this week, it may not just be press conferences that Paterno relieves him of. It could be his job.