Michael Robinson, the backup quarterback, trotted onto the Beaver Stadium green behind starting quarterback Zack Mills. The huddle broke, and Robinson lined up in the slot.

He's in the game! They've got to give him the ball!

Robinson broke around behind Mills, who faked a reverse handoff to him but gave the ball instead to tailback Larry Johnson.

This continued for a while. Robinson in the game, lurking there, and Mills giving it to somebody else or keeping it himself.

Give him the ball! Why is he in there if they aren't going to give him the ball?

Mills lined up in a two-back shotgun formation, Larry Johnson on one side, Robinson on the other.

He's the fullback! What are they doing? Give him the ball!

Two weeks ago, against UCF, Robinson had come in as the quarterback, taken the snap and charged fervently ahead for a few yards. Play after play, ball to Robinson, Robinson run.

He's got to get the ball on this play! Zack, give him the ball!

But no, it was all a tease, that No. 12 on the field.

That is until Nebraska responded to Penn State's first touchdown by marching down the field basically unopposed. The Cornhuskers gained yardage on every play and had only two second downs the whole drive. They were a machine.

So Penn State football coach Joe Paterno monkey-wrenched it all with Robinson.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the world," the 75-ysear old said. "But I'm smart enough to know that if you've got a player like Michael Robinson, you use him."

So Robinson opened Penn State's first play after Nebraska's momentum-swinging march to the end zone with a reverse. After going in motion from the slot, he took the ball from Mills around the 15-yard line, scampered outside the left side of the Nebraska line and went 28 yards. He got so excited that he stumbled out of bounds.

"That was just us putting a playmaker on the field," Penn State defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy said. "He can do a lot of things and he proved that today."

The hype has been loud for Robinson since he arrived last year as the next Michael Vick who wanted no part of being the next Michael Vick at Virginia Tech. The move was questioned by many. What would he do in Penn State's blasé offense?

Saturday, Nebraska -- and the college football world -- found out.

"I wasn't surprised," said Nebraksa cornerback DeJuan Groce. "We knew he was going to be a good player and we knew it was going to be a good team, we just didn't play up to our ability."

They certainly could not stop Robinson. He carried the ball four times for 56 yards and the first two touchdowns of his career.

As deceptive as the redshirt freshman is to tacklers, he is worse with the media. He is a flat-out liar.

On just about every occasion he's talked to the media, someone has inevitably asked if he was seeing reps at any other position than quarterback. His general response: look them straight in the eye, shrug and say, "I'm a quarterback."

Turns out, he's been practicing as a multi-dimensional weapon for about four weeks.

"I didn't lie to you, really," he said with a big smile. "There were just things I couldn't tell you. They are normal plays, they just put me in there to give it a different look. We had it all in the bag last game, we just didn't break it out."

Paterno learns from mistakes. He is smart enough to do that. The Lions had a quarterback named Rashard Casey three years ago who could do a lot of the things Robinson can. Paterno hurt Casey by trying to rein him in.

"I told my mom to be in for a surprise," Robinson said. "I didn't think it would be this kind of surprise."

Saturday was a pleasant surprise for Robinson. "It's a dream come true," he said. But he won't be able to surprise anybody anymore. They'll know about him. The question is: will that help them stop him?