Penn State's football practices are famously closed to everyone but players, coaches and support staff.

Still, almost as soon as preseason practice began last month, word began getting out.

Freshman quarterback Robert Bolden had it.

It is a combination of things: Leadership without trying too hard, "presence" (whatever that is), ability to climb a near-vertical learning curve and the instinct to look through the chaos on a quarterback's radar screen and see all the right things.

An inkling that the spy reports contained truth came Monday, when Bolden was listed on the season's first three-deep as a co-first-string QB, along with sophomores Matt McGloin and Kevin Newsome.

The stunning news came Wednesday night: Joe Paterno has gone against type and named Bolden, 65 years his junior with a total college football experience of a couple weeks of practice, his starter at the most important position on the field.

Bolden will be behind center, at least at the beginning, when Penn State opens Saturday against apparently-overmatched Youngstown State (noon, Beaver Stadium, Big Ten Network).

Sure, it's likely that both McGloin and Newsome will play Saturday. And it's certain that Youngstown State won't provide the kind of test the Nittany Lions will face for most of this season. Or next week, at Alabama.

But it feels like the ceiling on this Penn State season has been raised a little. Certainly the excitement level has.

"Everyone's heard he's been amazing in practice," Alex Cohen, president of the student-fan group Paternoville, said Thursday. "His talent level, we hear, is off the charts.

"He's become the fan favorite in a very short amount of time. Everyone's really excited."

Wally Richardson, Tony Sacca and Zack Mills have played quarterback for Paterno as true freshmen. But this is the first time ever that Paterno has started the season with a true freshman.

That's been done just once in Penn State's entire football history, by the late Eugene "Shorty" Miller, just a bit before the Paterno Era, in 1910.

The announcement came with a diplomatically bland JoePa quote:

"Based on what we have seen to this point, Bolden has a slight edge right now, but we are confident all three quarterbacks are ready to go and hope to give them an opportunity to play until we settle on the one that gives us the best chance to win."

So what do we know about this kid?

He's from Orchard Lake, Mich., not far from Detroit. Played his high school football at state power St. Mary's High, which Bolden led to two state finals over his three years as a starter.

"His sophomore year, he was battling some things," George Porritt, Bolden's high school coach, said Thursday. "By his junior year, I knew he was something special. We lost (both state finals), but he played great in both of them."

Bolden is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. He was an elite prospect out of high school, ranked the fourth-best quarterback in the nation by ESPN.com and the second-best dual-threat quarterback by Rivals.com.

Despite that, and a 3.4 high-school grade-point average, Bolden wasn't really a white-hot recruit. His offers were mostly second-tier, from Louisville, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, etc.

As for his home state, Penn State beat out Michigan State for him, but Michigan was reportedly not much interested.

He's considered a hybrid, or a quarterback with dropback and running QB skills. Porritt confirmed that.

"The arm strength is there; he's got as good an arm as anybody I've had," he said. "And he can fly. He may not be the swivel-hipped guy who'll make you miss, but give him a crack, and he's gone."

The intangibles, evidently, are more impressive than the raw-athletic stuff.

Many blue-chip freshman, and especially quarterbacks, now give up the spring of their senior year in high school, enroll in college in January and get the benefit of spring practice. Bolden didn't. He didn't start learning the offense until around last May. He reportedly devoured it.

"He's a leader by example, because he's the hardest worker I've ever had," Porritt said. "You never hear him say a negative thing. He puts a lot on himself. Too much sometimes. I'm a little worried about that, with all the pressure he's going to be under."

Bolden's father, Robert Bolden, Sr., couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. He's a former Army demolitions expert who now works for the Detroit Police Department in a job that involves coordinating between local and federal law-enforcement agencies like the FBI.

"His dad's a good man," Porritt said. "He set the tone. If you get to know (Bolden, Jr.), you'll see that his dad instilled the right values."

We will. Starting Saturday.

mgross@lnpnews.com