Penn State quarterback took ownership of loss

Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark entered his postgame news conference at Iowa last fall and spoke mumbled words through teary cheeks.

Clark took then-unbeaten No. 3-ranked Penn State to Iowa City and played his worst game last season. He completed nine of 23 passes for 86 yards and had two second-half completions. He threw a late interception that allowed Iowa to rally for a field goal and a 24-23 victory.

Clark took ownership of Penn State's loss and still owns it today.

“There's nothing that anyone can say to me to make me believe that it wasn't my fault. Period,” Clark, now a senior, said Wednesday. “I feel like I owe our football team a lot given the fact of what happened last season.”

Clark's interception was galling to him because of the situation. With 4 minutes remaining, Penn State faced a third and 24 from Iowa's 37. Clark had plenty of time and missed a wide-open Derrick Williams on a post route down the middle of the field. The ball sailed straight to Iowa safety Tyler Sash, who returned the ball 14 yards to the Hawkeyes' 29. Had Clark hit Williams in stride, Penn State would have had the ball no worse than Iowa's 17-yard line facing a fourth-and-4, a likely field-goal attempt and milking another minute from the clock.

Instead, Iowa marched 57 yards in 15 plays and kicked a game-winning field goal. It still eats at Clark.

“It wasn't just the interception; it was plays that went along the entire game,” he said. “I wasn't very accurate. There were plays to be made that I just did not make. Obviously, the interception was one of the biggest ones because it was in a crucial situation. But it's not the only one.

“I watch that film time and time again to see what went wrong, what was wrong with the scheme, if I missed a read here, why was I looking a certain way ...?”

One bad game rarely defines a college career, and Clark rebounded nicely in Penn State's final two regular-season games. Against Michigan State, he threw for 341 yards and four touchdowns to clinch a Rose Bowl berth. He finished with 2,592 passing yards with 19 touchdowns and six interceptions and rushed for 10 touchdowns. He was first-team all-Big Ten quarterback and runner-up to Iowa running back Shonn Greene in league MVP voting.

Clark has started strong this season. He opened against Akron by completing 29 of 40 passes for 353 yards and three touchdowns to earn his third Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week award. He leads the Big Ten in passing yardage (253 yards a game) and touchdown passes (eight) and ranks among the top 30 nationally in four passing categories. Clark is 14-2 as a starter.

“Some quarterbacks just have that ability of guiding their teams to victories, and he certainly seems very adept at that,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “He's a guy that can beat you at throwing the football, he can beat you with his feet, also, and with his head.”

Clark said he's focused this week because it's the Big Ten opener and not to exact revenge for 2008. But he fielded questions all summer about his performance against Iowa.

“I hear about it all the time, people back home, from the media and everything,” Clark said. “It's my responsibility as a quarterback to put in the past because it happened last year.”