Monday, September 29, 2003

By Ray Fittipaldo, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Michael Robinson didn't complete as many passes as he would have liked, especially those final three that fell incomplete on the doorstep to victory Saturday against Minnesota.

But Robinson did prove something to himself and perhaps to the coaches with his substitute performance in Penn State's 20-14 loss to the Golden Gophers in the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.

Robinson was 16 for 27 for 178 yards in relief of injured starter Zack Mills, whose left knee was sprained in the second quarter and did not return.

In his previous stints at quarterback, Penn State coach Joe Paterno and offensive coordinator Fran Ganter did not open up the playbook and call many passing plays for Robinson.

Robinson had 39 career pass attempts coming into the game, including 22 in the first four games this season. A 6-foot-2, 225-pound all-around athlete, Robinson's role had been to run first, with passing a second distant thought.

But against Minnesota, Robinson proved he can be an effective quarterback throwing the ball. Penn State's 193 yards passing, with Robinson responsible for 185, was the most in a game for Penn State since a game against Virginia in November last year, a span of seven games.

"I would hope they have a little more faith in me now," Robinson said. "I don't think they didn't have any faith in me before. It was just in the situations when I was on the field we didn't call any passes just to be safe. I think that was their mindset the past couple of weeks."

Robinson will have another opportunity show he is more than a runner Saturday against Wisconsin. Mills has a second-degree sprain of his left knee and is being listed as questionable this week. There was update on his condition from Penn State yesterday.

In the previous seven games, with Mills at the controls for most of the game snaps, the passing game averaged 133 yards. Robinson did his damage against Minnesota in three quarters.

"It's hard to put a finger on exactly what it was," senior fullback Sean McHugh said. "I don't know if guys picked it up because the backup was coming in or what. We started moving the ball better and came up with big plays. Whatever it was it worked. We moved the ball very well."

Penn State had a season-high 419 yards of offense. Robinson spread the ball around to 10 receivers and converted eight of the team's 10 third-down conversions.

Robinson always brought a different dimension to the quarterback position with his ability to run and scramble. The fact that he threw well out of base formations had to be pleasing to Penn State coaches because a double threat at quarterback can be a headache for opposing defensive coordinators.

"We saw him on film and really didn't prepare for his passing game," Minnesota safety Justin Fraley said. "We were a little on our heels and caught off guard by some of the passing plays. Overall, he had a great passing day and rushed well, but any great athlete could have that kind of game on any given day."

"Boy, he looked good to me," Minnesota coach Glen Mason said. "I looked at him in pregame warmups and thought to myself, 'Wow!' He looks a lot better in person physically, and he came in the game and performed pretty darn good."

If Robinson can be criticized, it would be that he was unable to convert all of those yards into more points. He had Penn State in Minnesota territory on five consecutive possessions and came away without any points.

He threw two interceptions (one of which should have been ruled an incomplete pass), he turned the ball over on downs twice and Robbie Gould missed a field goal.

But overall, considering the circumstances, Robinson was pleased with his effort.

"I learned I can make this offense work," said Robinson, a redshirt sophomore. "I learned I can throw the ball against defenses. I learned I can read defenses fast enough to get the ball off.

"A lot of you guys probably wrote that I couldn't throw the ball. I can throw the ball a little bit. With our pass offense, we're starting to click now and our receivers are starting to catch the ball. We're ready to go."

With Mills out, Robinson will assume the mantle of leadership for the offense. Mills was just beginning this season to become more of a vocal leader as a junior. Robinson said it is a role he covets.

"With Zack down, I think a lot of people are looking for me to be that leader, and I'm fully prepared for that."

Robinson said he will not prepare any differently this week than he has in past weeks when he was the backup. He and Mills had been splitting the snaps 50-50 in practice, and Robinson assumes Chris Ganter will get just as much work in practice this week to prepare him in case of an injury.

And for the record, Robinson said he has no designs on trying to win the starting position while Mills is out.

"I'm not really thinking about going in and winning a starting position," he said. "I don't think that's the type of competition we need right now. We're 2-3 and we need to win games. Right now I just want to go in there, make plays, do the best I can and hopefully everything will turn out."

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