With Iowa's Shonn Greene and Ohio State's Beanie Wells gone to the NFL, Evan Royster came into this season as probably the best running back in the Big Ten Conference.

He's big for a tailback (6-1, 210), quick, tough and elusive. He was, as Joe Paterno says every time Royster's name comes up, "the best high school lacrosse player in the state of Virginia."

More tangibly, Royster ran for 1,236 yards, 6.5 per carry, and 12 touchdowns a year ago.

So in theory, this season should be Royster's time to shine.

In last Saturday's 31-7, season-opening defeat of Akron? Not so much with the shining.

Royster managed 61 yards in 14 carries. As did all the Penn State runners in that game, Royster appeared tentative and unsure, because of an offensive line that was tentative and unsure.

Part of that was Akron playing a defensive front, a 3-5 with many variations, that the PSU line had never seen before and probably never will again.

Another part of that is the inexperience of said line, of which all five members are starting at their current position for the first time.

The line's development will be one of the key themes of this season and particularly the non-conference portion, which continues with Saturday's meeting with Syracuse (noon, Beaver Stadium).

The Lions, who passed Big Ten rival Ohio State and rose to No. 7 nationally in the AP poll based on week one's results, are supposed to blast Syracuse.

They were supposed to blast Akron and did, leading 31-0 at halftime and holding the Zips to zero first downs and minus-17 rushing yards in the first half.

Offensively, the passing game earned the headlines. Quarterback Daryll Clark threw for 353 yards and leaders of the new wide receiving corps, Derek Moye, Chaz Powell and Graham Zug combined for 18 catches, 265 yards and three TDs.

The ground game was less impressive. Penn State ran for 136 yards, but 37 came on a fake punt.

"I would rather have run it (more), but in all fairness, (Akron) put a lot of people around the football," Paterno said.

"They made it tough to run. … In fact, I was arguing with the guys upstairs to throw a few more passes. The line coaches wanted to work on the running game. We'll have to be a better running team."

Interestingly, JoePa seemed less enthusiastic in his Tuesday teleconference, after watching the Akron film.

"I thought we did all right," Paterno said. "We've got a lot of work to do with our running game. I think that was obvious. But you've got to give Akron some credit. They had a good scheme, and they were very aggressive, and they've got some kids that can play.

"And so I'm reluctant to be too critical, but you know, I think we've got to be better. We've got to be more consistent."

In his interview session this week, Royster claimed to be unconcerned.

"I always want to get my hands on the ball, but it wasn't frustrating," he said. "We'll play some teams that try to shut down the passing game. It's a give-and-take thing."

A couple other things may make it hard for Royster to rack up gaudy numbers. One, tailback is the deepest position on the team. Second-stringer Stephfon Green, by all accounts faster and more explosive than Royster, is in his third year with the program. He's too big a talent not to get some touches.

Also, Royster is at least for now the first-team punt-returner, an unusual gig for a starting tailback.

"Well, right now Royster is the best one we have," Paterno said.

We think he can help us more with the punt return than carrying the ball another five times."

Royster only had one return for two yards against Akron, and he did appear to take a nasty hit.

"Hits always look worse than they feel," he said. "It kinda fires you up, really."

One key for Saturday and going forward, then, is to keep Royster a little less fired up.

E-mail: mgross@lnpnews.com