With only one starter – senior left tackle Levi Brown – back, the offensive line was one of the biggest question marks for Penn State heading into this season.

Even before last week’s struggles rushing the ball against Akron, Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno had cause for concern over his inexperienced blockers.

“Until we play a game, when you play a bunch of kids who haven’t played in a football game, you are always going to be worried about them,” Paterno said in the preseason.

Hunt averaged 6 yards per carry in 2005. Against Akron his average per rush: 2.5 yards.

After the meager ground game vs. the Zips, Paterno was disappointed that the offensive line got flustered, and became tentative coming off the football.

But the veteran coach holds the belief that the unit’s troubles were more mental than physical. He is not planning any changes in his starters up front for the tilt with Notre Dame, but this week Elijah Robinson, a 6-foot-2, 287-pound sophomore, has been moved from defensive line to offensive line.

Nittany Lions fans hoping for an upset of the No. 4-ranked Fighting Irish know that without improvement from the running game, the chances of a win in South Bend are not real encouraging.

Paterno does have an encouraging thought: “I think a good football team gets better from the first to the second game than at any other time during the year.”

But the coach also knows having his offensive line display improvement in Notre Dame’s house is asking a lot.

Said Paterno: "I think we have a chance to have a pretty good offensive line. I just don't think we were ready for some of the things we saw last week.

“Obviously, we're going to have a tougher time this week. We're playing on the road; there will be a lot of crowd noise; we have to pay attention to the snap counts and not get panicky when something goes wrong.

“We're in a development state. We're not there yet. We've just got to stay patient."

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