What did the kid really say?

More importantly, why didn't he just pee his pants, or curl up in the fetal position and cry for his mom?

When Northwestern defensive end Napoleon Harris Mack-trucked Penn State starting quarterback Matt Senneca into oblivion with 1:39 left in the game and the Nittany Lions down 35-31, back up Zack Mills entered what conventional football wisdom would usually deem an insurmountable situation.

Nobody expected that the redshirt freshman would step in cold and drive his team 52 yards for a game-winning touchdown. Had he gone in, fumbled the first snap and lost the game, not a single person would have said a single rotten word about Mills.

Granted, Mills is not your normal splinter-butted reserve. He's the starter against Northwestern for any other program. Up to that game he had been more poised, more accurate and more productive than Senneca, without any doubt.

Of course, if you know anything about Penn State football, you knew that No. 4 would be taking the snaps. Head Coach Joe Paterno has always and will always stick with his veteran players. It's not a very popular philosophy in this world of win at all costs football, but it clearly worked Saturday, as Senneca responded to Paterno's unwavering faith with his best performance to date.

All of that aside, the hit that rattled Senneca's noggin could very well have rattled the Nits momentum, or confidence, or will or any intangible you'd like to insert here. The game very well could have been filed under the bad luck, woe-is-me, excuse for everything type of loss Penn Staters are getting all too accustomed to.

But Saturday, a team we'd all but given up on found the power to keep going, to get up off the ropes and throw those fists with one last dose of unfettered, emphatic urgency.

It wasn't the first burst of guts the team showed.

For the first time this season — and maybe since last year's shocker against Purdue at Beaver Stadium — several Penn State players stepped up, making gutsy plays when the team needed them most.

Eddie Drummond set the tone early, slicing the Wildcat defense with his speed from the backfield. Eric McCoo ran well up the middle and made a solid grab on the Lions' first touchdown. Bryant Johnson cemented his spot as Penn State's go to guy.

The key may have been Larry Johnson's work on a drive late in the third quarter. Down by seven, the Lions defense got a three and out and the offense got the ball at their own 45-yard line. After a first down on a pass to Eric McCoo, Johnson took the ball 22 yards, breaking several tackles including one in which he appeared to hurdle his legs sideways over a Northwestern defender.

Two plays later, Johnson went up the middle for a one-yard gain, limped off the field and spiked his helmet because of the pain in his ankle.

He was fiery and he was ornery. He was sick of losing.

So when Mills finished his warm up tosses and trotted onto the field, he didn't exactly have to rally the troops. Nor were those troops low on morale. They had seen the 19-year old stand up to some of the biggest defensive nasties in the game.

But still, what do you say? You're looking for your first win of the season. You're trying to get your coach the victory that will tie him with Bear Bryant for the most ever in Division I football. You're trying to restore pride in one of the most prolific and storied programs in the country.

"What's up guys? I missed y'all. Y'all ready to take this in?" is what John Gilmore says that Mills said.

Eric McCoo said that Mills came in and said: "OK, are you ready to go?"

Mills himself said that he walked in and said: "What's up fellas!"

That exclamation point I took from the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I have my doubts about its validity, because I haven't seen Mills smile yet.

Reporter: "So, Zack, how does it feel to step in as a freshman and play so well for a program that has never had good, young quarterbacks?"

Mills: "My teammates have helped me a lot and I'm enjoying it."

Then a stalled smile and a fait glint in Mills' eyes before Mr. Cool returns.

Me, I'm beginning to like Mr. Cool. Because all year this team has been swearing to us that they work hard and that they just need to get confidence and all of it sounds like the same old nothingness after a while. Mr. Cool says all those things, sure, but then he gets it done.

It's not like I could have thought of anything better to say in that huddle. What's up, fellas — especially when so forcefully exclaimed — works quite well.

Because no Knute Rockne speech was going to do anything for Penn State at that juncture.

So Mills just went out, completed five of eight passes and won his team the game.

In the end, he didn't need to say anything at all.