CHICAGO - The bench became an unwilling partner, an unwanted friend, a large metal weight that was forced onto Daryll Clark his sophomore year. He had felt he was ready. He knew he was ready.

His position coach at Penn State, Jay Paterno, said the same thing.

The problem was, Penn State coach Joe Paterno wasn’t sure. He equally had doubts about Clark and wanted to avoid messing with the confidence of his then-starter, senior Anthony Morelli.

So Clark sat.

“At times, you was sitting on the sidelines and things weren’t going right and you’d get a little frustrated,” Clark said. “Thinking you can get in and spark the offense a little bit and get things going.”

Two years later, sitting Clark seems almost unimaginable. The senior blossomed last year into the best quarterback in the Big Ten and led Penn State to the Rose Bowl. Clark’s play last season also led Joe Paterno, the iconic coach, to do something coaches rarely do these days.

Admit, over and over again, that he made a mistake.

The 6-foot-2, 233-pound Clark played in eight games in 2007, including the second half of the Alamo Bowl that year, when he replaced an ineffective Morelli and gained 50 yards on six carries against Texas A&M.

The 50 yards rushing in the bowl game eclipsed his 31 yards passing - for the 2007 season. And his six carries in the game equaled the amount of passes he completed that entire year.

“He came out of nowhere, and he came out of nowhere because of me,” Joe Paterno said. “I held him back a little bit because Jay wanted to play him more. I was hopeful that Morelli, and that if I started playing the other kid, it would hurt his confidence.”

Instead, it maybe made Clark more intent on seeing the field.

Flash to now and Clark is the unquestioned leader of a Penn State team that is a contender to win the Big Ten. With the loss of dynamic wide receivers Deon Butler, Derrick Williams and Jordan Norwood, he is an even more important part of the offense as a dual-threat quarterback who can beat teams with his arms and his legs. He also, along with Evan Royster, needs to become a team leader.

In learning about leadership, he’s also found patience. He understands more about setting up big plays and not needing to force things.

“As a young quarterback, you always want to go for the big play right away,” Clark said. “Learning from (former Penn State quarterback) Michael Robinson, learning from Morelli a little bit, you understand it’s not all going to be there.”

As Clark settled in during the 2008 season, he became more accurate. He completed 192 of 321 passes (59.8 percent) for 2,592 yards, 19 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also ran for 282 yards and 10 more touchdowns.

How much have things changed for Clark? He’s gone from two years ago being an offensive afterthought to being the guy that, if he were to get injured, would wreck Penn State’s season. Paterno even admitted there’d be a “dropoff” if he wasn’t on the field.

Which led Paterno to say he wouldn’t mind if Clark was a bit more conservative as to when he runs this year. The only problem there is that Penn State is going to be starting new players on the offensive line, which means that Clark may be forced to use both of his options equally.

“I hope he doesn’t run the ball as much,” Paterno said. “He’s got a good knack of finding people downfield. He’s started to read coverages well. He anticipated breaks and he moved around enough in the pocket until somebody had time to free up.

“He’s become a good quarterback.”

He’s become more than that to Penn State. He’s become an indispensible one.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558 or by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com.