UNIVERSITY PARK -- At 10:25 Saturday morning, Rob Bolden was the first person to step off the Blue Bird Handy Bus -- the lead in a row of four similarly painted school buses full of Penn State football players and coaches -- as it stopped along Curtin Road, just outside the south end zone gate of Beaver Stadium.

Bolden was wearing a blue No. 1 jersey, his shoulders so thick it looked as if he was wearing his shoulder pads, not carrying them in his left hand, along with his helmet. His backpack was strapped on. He had on his white game pants.

What he wasn’t wearing was an expression.

Bolden exited and looked straight ahead, then to his left. His look lingered, taking in the sight of hundreds and hundreds of Nittany Lion fans, 30 and 40 deep, who crowded the concrete walkway and stood shoulder to shoulder up a small mound of grass outside the stadium. Bolden looked to his right, his face blank. Then straight again.

After Bolden, Joe Paterno gingerly stepped off the bus. Some cheers. But the multitudes of blue that gathered had come to see not something old, but rather something new.

They knew Bolden was opening the game against Youngstown State at quarterback in just 90 minutes, the first true freshman to ever start an opener in Paterno’s 45 years as head coach. They wanted an advance peek, a look at the 18-year-old freshman from Michigan who had beaten out sophomore Kevin Newsome and redshirt sophomore Kevin McGloin for the starting position.

The 6-foot-3, 221-pound Bolden barely took notice. His lips stayed closed, there was no hint of a smile, his head didn’t swivel. He barely blinked.

He was calm in the pocket against a vocal rush of 4,000 or so screaming Nittany Lion fans.

No surprise to his new teammates, who saw him up close for 29 days of preseason drills in August and worked out alongside him throughout the summer, for a total of 111 days -- give or take a weekend back in his hometown of Orchard Lake, Mich. -- since Bolden arrived on the University Park campus one day after graduating from St. Mary’s Prep High School.

After the game, his teammates were talking about Bolden on the field, but they might as well have been describing his pre-game 60-yard stroll to the stadium.

“Bolden’s cool. He’s relaxed. He’s never jittery,” said left offensive tackle Quinn Barham, starting his first game for the Nittany Lions, who beat Youngstown State 44-14 before 101,213 fans.

“He’s cool and collected. He doesn’t rush,” said senior Chris Colasanti, making his first start at linebacker and leading the Lions with 13 tackles, and a Michigander himself.

“He’s calm and poised,” said fullback Joe Suhey. “Before the game he had everything together in the locker room and was ready to go.”

THE MICHIGAN VOTE

Bolden was ready on May 16, the day he walked onto campus. That fellow freshman Paul Jones had thrown two touchdown passes in the Blue-White Game didn’t deter him. Neither did the presence of McGloin or Newsome. He was ESPN.com’s fourth-best quarterback in the country and led his team to the state finals on 72 of 152 passing for 1,013 yards and seven TDs, while running for 535 yards and nine scores.

His reputation preceded him, especially among the two other Michigan natives on the roster, Colasanti and junior offensive guard DeOn’tae Pannell, who started seven contests in 2009 as well as the game on Saturday.

“He’s as good as advertised,” said Pannell, whose hometown of Southfield is some 20 miles away from Bolden’s. “A lot of guys told me that he was big in high school, with a lot of athletic ability. I was getting a lot of info on him.”

Last week as the opener drew near, Pannell couldn’t wait to get more info, the kind about who was going to start at quarterback. So he went to Bolden.

“Who’s the starter? Are you?” Pannell asked.

“Yeah,” answered Bolden flatly, “they gave me the job.”

Pannell couldn’t believe it. Not the answer. How Bolden answered. “He was even-keeled even about that,” Pannell said when retelling the story.

Colisanti went to Brother Rice High School in Leonard, arch-rivals with Bolden’s  alma mater, St. Mary’s. The two never met on the field -- Colisanti is at least three years older. Still, he knew Bolden’s rep.

“I knew he was special,” Colisanti said. “I knew about him because he went to my rival school. When he came here, he was exactly what they said he’d be. He has a cannon, strong arm, smart, knows how to use his legs."

THE RECEIVERS’ VOTE

Redshirt wide receiver Derek Moye was the Nittany Lions' top receiver in 2009, leading the team in catches (48), yardage (785) and receiving average (16.4 yards). If someone was going to really miss quarterback Daryll Clark, gone after two years and a 22-4 record, you have to figure it was Moye. But there couldn’t have been a happier guy than Moye when Bolden appeared in May.

“When I saw him at first this summer, I knew he had a shot at playing if not starting,” said Moye, who caught five passes for 61 yards and a long of 27 against YSU. “You could tell he was going to be good. He has naturally smooth mechanics.

“When he first came in, we all were really impressed that he was not only looking at his first read, but then his second and then hitting the third guy. The receivers were excited by that right away.”

Fifth-year senior Brett Brackett, newly named as the team co-captain with Ollie Ogbu, had a career day on Saturday. And it was nearly beyond the conventional sense, as in the best game of his career. Rather, his game on Saturday was almost good as the first three years of his career combined.

Brackett caught eight passes for 98 yards and touchdowns of 20 and 22 yards. That’s five more grabs than he had in all of 2009 and nearly half of his 17 catches for 189 yards he had in three seasons. Recruited as a quarterback, two weeks into his career in 2006 he was moved to the scout team to emulate Notre Dame’s Jeff Samardzija. And he never switched back.

So that could have been, conceivably, Brett Brackett out there. (Or Pat Devlin, whose departure to Delaware left PSU with a gaping hole at quarterback heading into 2010, as even Paterno acknowledged on Saturday.)

So Brackett knows a good quarterback when he sees one.

“When he came in, Rob really soaked everything up,” said Brackett. “He has natural ability -- poise, confidence, quick reflexes.”

And Brackett knows a good leader when he sees one.

“When Rob comes into the huddle to call plays, he demands quiet,” said Brackett. “It is crucial that he, A, have everyone’s respect. And B, have control of the team. And he does on both counts.”

THE COACHES’ VOTE

When the final count was taken, the starters’ name was Rob Bolden. To hear Jay Paterno tell it, every coach had a say in voting on the starting quarterback. OK, with Joe around, it wasn’t exactly a vote, but they did give their opinions.

It is a staff that includes three former college football head coaches, two former Nittany Lion starting quarterbacks, one of the top defensive coordinators in the country, the foreman of Penn State’s NFL DL factory and a quarterback coach who has produced two of the Big Ten’s top quarterbacks in the past five years.

They know talent.

“Joe let us have several discussions,” said Jay, outlining the final decision process. “He talked to the offensive coaches and the defensive coaches, then it came down to an agreement. We went around the room and everyone had the same answer.”

Bolden.

What really sealed the deal for Jay was about 10 days ago, when Bolden performed poorly in a scrimmage, with two interceptions. “Everything didn’t seem to go well,” said Jay, noting with a grin that Bolden even got stepped on by the left guard.

“But he came out the next day of practice and went great guns. It didn’t affect him.”

THE NUMBERS

After a three and out to start the game (which led to PSU’s only punt, a 45-yarder by Anthony Fera), not much affected Bolden on Saturday, either.

He directed seven more drives, and six of them led to scores -- quite a show on offensive efficiency. That it was against lower division YSU is another matter, of course, but Bolden did what he had to against the only team he could on Saturday. Next week against Alabama is more than another story -- it’s a whole different library.

Still, even after throwing his only interception of the day -- a combination of a receiver slipping and a poor pass -- Bolden responded well. The very next drive Penn State had the ball, he directed the Lions on a scoring drive of eight plays, 68 yards and 4 minutes and 51 seconds, culminating in the 20-yard score to Brackett.

His average scoring drive went 53 yards in seven plays and lasted only 2:41. That’s fast. On Penn State’s second- and third-longest scoring drives, of 58 and 68 yards, he completed four of four passes both times. And on the longest drive, an 85-yard march in the fourth quarter, he made throws of 13, 23 and 27 yards.

Overall, on average for the eight drives he directed, Bolden led Penn State to three touchdowns, three field goals (44, 48 annd 49 by Collin Wagner), one interception and one punt. Ball control.

He finished 20 of 29 passing, for 239 yards, and carried the ball only once, a called run, for one yard.

Credit Jay Paterno for Bolden’s success in certain ways, not the least among them the play-calling. Bolden rarely threw deep, and made due with quick tosses to the wideouts and close passes to Brackett. He was given a chance to succeed and he did.

Of Bolden’s 20 completions, 11 went for nine yards or less, four for 11-17 yards and five for 20-27 yards, with a couple of them run and catches.

JOE’S VOTE

After the game, Paterno The Elder dispensed with any talk of numbers and, mostly, Bolden as well.

"I thought overall he played a good, solid game," said Paterno. "I think we did all right. I have to look at the tapes. I think we have to get into a tough football game. We have to make some plays against different situations. So when we go through that, I'll know better."

Meaning that against Youngstown Bolden’s hopes did spring eternal, but one bad day in Tuscaloosa and all the talk about the new Nittany Lion freshman sensation will be washed out by the Tide.

Earlier coverage

• Penn State Football: Freshman Bolden Shines in 44-14 Victory