Penn State's littlest Lion was on the phone yesterday, spilling the beans, dumping 'em all over the place, but, somehow, you'd suspect Joe Paterno still likes him.

"I really like him," the head coach said just a few weeks ago. "He doesn't say beans and he keeps his mouth shut. He really is a big-time wideout."

There was nothing real spicy among the bean harvest yesterday, only that Deon Butler is a lot more comfortable for the football season that breaks out Saturday against Akron, and nobody connected with the visiting Zips should be comfortable with that.

"Last year, I had no clue what to expect, so I was a lot more nervous," said the 166-pound sophomore from suburban Washington, D.C. "Now I know what the guys around me can do, and that takes a lot of pressure off me. I don't feel like I have to prove myself like last year because I know we're going to be solid."

To put it bluntly then, and based strictly on production, it might be said that few people in the long history of Nittany Lions football have ridden cluelessness to such spectacular heights as Butler.

In his first game as a redshirt freshman, the former walk-on caught a 45-yard touchdown pass. Against Wisconsin, he caught five balls for a freshmen-record 125 yards including touchdown receptions of 43 and 47 yards. When the season Penn State used to restore itself to national prominence ended with an Orange Bowl championship, a season separated by a split second from becoming another of Paterno's unbeaten autumns, Butler found himself the leading receiver on the No. 3 team in the country with 37 catches for 691 yards and nine touchdowns, the most by a Penn State wideout since Joe Jurevicius in 1997.

Beyond that, the audience couldn't help but notice his pervasive big-play aptitude. He caught 11 passes of more than 20 yards and five of more than 40. He averaged 19 yards per catch.

Players such as Butler and the equally spectacular Derrick Williams, whose season ended prematurely when he broke his arm against Michigan in mid-October, are the pivotal elements Penn State has in place to emphasize that last season was not a mere spike in a continuous downward spiral. Anything resembling a struggle against your Motor City Bowl runner-up Akron Zips could send some long dormant self-doubt boiling to the surface again.

"I don't feel we have to play our best game of the season," Butler said of the priorities Saturday. "You have to realize people are going to be making some mental mistakes getting through their first game. We just have to keep our heads and focus. We have to play a good game and just get better from there."

Even at that, Butler admitted that the looming season's overall theme has its pet urgencies.

"Well, 2005 put Penn State back on top after there was some lack of respect," he said. "For this year's team, one of the biggest things is not to let that be a one-hit-wonder kind of thing. We don't want to have one great year and go back into the shadows, to let people think we don't have the kind of athletes it takes to stay up there. We want to do it consistently, year in and year out, no matter which players we use. We want people to say, 'They're Penn State and somehow, someway they're going to get it done because they've done it for years now."

The Lions are not far enough removed from losing 16 of 23 in 2003 and 2004 to assume they can beat people merely by following the band onto the Beaver Stadium lawn, especially with so many unproven linemen and a quarterback, former Penn Hills stud Anthony Morelli, who will be making his first collegiate start.

"We definitely feel like we have to make some big plays early on to get his confidence going," Butler said of the new passer. "But he's a strong-willed kid. If things don't go well right away, I don't think he's going to shut down. He's got a strong mind."

There'll be plenty to ponder out there just after 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Akron is running an innovative 3-5-3 defense that's highly sophisticated, and the correct response is absolute precision. Butler said that has been the offense's approach to this opener for a long time, particularly among the receivers.

"We've changed a whole bunch, and I see it every day," he said. "We're nit-picking each other. 'You're a yard short here. You didn't look the ball all the way in.' Last year, it was like, if a ball was thrown behind you, we'd tell each other you have to get a hand on it. This year it's, 'You've gotta make that catch if you want to be a big-time receiver.' It's a lot of little things that make a big difference. A lot of guys are just so much better."

Penn State's big-time wideouts have to be a big part of this first dance.

In nine days, Notre Dame will be punking up the tempo.