Football, like any other sport, is just a game.

The Blue-White game, unlike other games, is just a practice. Remember that.

Action on the field is, and should be, overshadowed by the tradition of a weekend when alumni, students and fans come to Happy Valley to celebrate the end of spring practice. Tailgating should take precedent over how many passes a receiver dropped. Drinking a couple of beers with old college roommates should be more important than who sees the most playing time at tailback.

The Blue-White game, above all, is a scrimmage and not an honest showcase of talent. The coaching staff takes steps to make it impossible for fans and media alike to get a fair grasp on things to come. It is not legitimate to pass judgments on the team. At least, not yet.

First, the offense runs a phantom playbook. In other words, the quarterbacks will lead an offense with plays more commonly found in a Playstation 2 college football game. Basic routes, simple and clean draws. Needless to say, a lot is kept under wraps, not to be unleashed until the regular season.

So, when Zack Mills throws his first incomplete pass, shades of the Capital One Bowl will certainly rear their head. People will question why he has the starting job, if he's hurt, or simply demand his immediate benching. Mills talked about this possibility occurring tomorrow and the asinine reasoning some fans have in looking too deeply into action on the field.

"Truthfully it's very frustrating, but that's how the world works," Mills said. "People don't see the other 14 practices that we participate in. They see one practice with our offense taken out. If that does happen, so what, I dealt with it after the bowl game."

Mills also talked about the broad generalizations that people make from one viewing of a practice.

"People get to see one scrimmage a year and they base their whole spring analysis on it," he said. "It's probably the least important practice of the season to tell you the truth. We take out a lot. It's just a scrimmage. It gives the fans a chance to come out and have some fun. You can take some things out of it, but keep the contexts in it. It's a game for fun pretty much."

Hence, that is why defensive tackle Anthony Adams lined up in the backfield as a fullback in last year's game. A whole lot of fun to watch, but it never happened in the regular season. It is also the same reason why Aric Heffelfinger was one of last Blue-White game's leading rushers. The coaching staff likes to put in walk-ons and other players with little chance to play during the regular season so they can experience the mystique and fanfare of being on the field in front of a Penn State crowd.

By all accounts, if we take the game as gospel, Larry Johnson should have been third on the depth chart behind Munya Maraire and Heffelfinger this past season. Part of the reason why a lot of these walk-ons and other players low on the depth chart perform fairly well is that they are going up against other walk-ons and players low on the depth chart. It makes great players look amazing, and average players look great.

When the only thing stopping Donnie Johnson or any other scholarship Div. I player from reaching the end zone is some sixth string walk-on linebacker whose previous role has been a tackling dummy, fans and media alike have no true basis for evaluation or comparison.

This is not to say the Blue-White game is not important in other respects. What makes the game so special is its grassroots approach to maintaining the Nittany Lions' fan base. Having the ability to get autographs from players, shake their hands and have pictures taken with them before the game is what the day is truly about. The family atmosphere generated by the day is a celebration, above all, of Penn State.