The stage is set.

The Penn State football team is riding high going to Michigan. After that minor glitch against Iowa, the Nittany Lions showed that one loss isn't going to knock them off their horse with the victory at Wisconsin. In the process, they also proved they can hang with top Big Ten teams on the road, and that they can move the ball on anyone.

The train taking the Lions back to prominence is rolling again, and really, if they can beat the Wolverines, there won't be any doubts that they are there. No shaky team can beat two Big Ten heavyweights on the road back to back, especially when one of them is Michigan. When the Lions joined the Big Ten, this was supposed to be the heavyweight game. They haven't won it since 1996, and no one has even given them a shot at doing so since 1999.

However, no one is going to get their hopes up too high until they know the exact status of one extremely important right hamstring.

At his press conference Tuesday, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said that he expected tailback Larry Johnson to be back in the lineup for tomorrow's game against the Wolverines after Johnson sat out the last quarter against Wisconsin.

Paterno said that Johnson would have probably been able to continue Saturday if he had to. However, he also said that the coaches kept Johnson out of practice Monday, and Johnson missed the call for his weekly teleconference, so there is no way of knowing whether the senior tailback is healing as smoothly as Paterno predicted.

Johnson isn't the only reason the Lions are back in the position where they are, of course. Football is more of a team-oriented game than any other and no one can win a game without his teammates playing up to par. However, there's no other player on the team, and very few in college football, about whom you could say the following without much of an argument: If Johnson plays tomorrow, the Lions have a very good chance of leaving the Big House with a victory. If not, the Lions will almost definitely be consoling themselves with a split of their two road trips.

Quarterback Zack Mills might be the biggest reason Paterno has changed his offense and the biggest reason the Lions started winning games last season, but without Johnson, it doesn't work.

The Lions didn't give Virginia a reason to respect the running game last year, and the Lions paid for it with a 20-14 loss. The Cavaliers just dropped eight men into coverage and the Lions couldn't pass. You could imagine the possibilities with Johnson facing three men in the box this season, so no defensive coordinator in his right mind is going to try that again.

No matter what the situation, if Johnson is on the field, he can be counted on to make plays. If he's not getting holes when he's running the ball, as was the case against Iowa, he can make plays when catching the ball out of the backfield. He is second on the team in receptions.

If you need a big special teams play, he can do that too. He averages 20 yards per kick return, and he has also blocked two punts in his career. With all of that versatility, it's not much of a surprise that he is ranked second in the nation and first in the Big Ten in all-purpose yardage.

Johnson and Mills can both will things to happen if one part of the offense isn't working, but Johnson is more important simply because there is no one behind him with close to as much talent.

The offense might need to be changed further for backup quarterback Michael Robinson to make an impact, but the kid is dripping with athleticism. If he can't be a college passer yet, the Lions have a solid, pure dropback passer in redshirt freshman Chris Ganter, who Paterno strives to recognize every time there is a question about quarterbacks.

Backup tailback Mike Gasparato did a good job of filling in for Johnson for a quarter Saturday, making a big catch out of the backfield and a few respectable runs. However, as Paterno and Gasparato himself will both admit, he's no LJ.

And as evidenced by his stats, there aren't too many people around college football that are. He's as talented as any offensive skill player, and probably one of the most valuable to his team.

Take away quarterback Ken Dorsey or tailback Willis McGahee from Miami and coach Larry Coker will still have a stable to pick from. Without freshman Maurice Clarett at tailback, Ohio State still has Lydell Ross.

Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich and Michigan State wide receiver Charles Rogers are also indispensible to their respective teams, but neither of those squads is having the season the Lions are.

It's been a while since that could be said about Penn State in comparison to any team, and it will be longer if this injury or a subsequent one keeps Johnson off the field.