The blue school buses pulled up to Beaver Stadium just like for every other Happy Valley Penn State football game. This week though there was one difference, Michael Robinson was the first one off the bus.

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has his starting quarterback lead the squad off the buses and into Beaver Stadium.

"[Paterno] said, 'Mike, let's have a game,' " Robinson said. "I can't even put into words the feeling that came over my body when I walked out of that bus and had all the fans screaming."

The fans had plenty to scream about when Robinson was on the field. The sophomore threw for 379 yards, the second highest single game passing total in school history, completing 22 passes including two touchdowns, the first touchdown passes of his career.

With Robinson showing that he can play against Big Ten competition the question must inevitably arise: Will Mills return as the starter when healthy?

"I don't know, that's what the coaches get paid for," Robinson said. "All I can do is go out there and play football."

Paterno said that Mills told him that he was healthy enough to play in the shotgun had Robinson and Chris Ganter gotten hurt. Mills was in uniform on Saturday. Robinson displayed that he was able to throw the ball and that he wasn't a one-dimensional quarterback.

"I didn't feel extra heat," Robinson said. "I wanted to rise to the occasion and show people I could throw the ball. I can throw the ball and prove that I can move the team."

Wisconsin's defense stopped the run and made it tough for Robinson to run. He carried nine times for 19 yards.

He was a little surprised that the Badgers didn't put even more pressure on the quarterback. Wisconsin got to Robinson twice before he could throw.

"Before the game, I thought they were going to blitz me a little bit more," Robinson said.

"That's what you do to a guy that is making his first start. They played back and told us 'If you are going to beat us you are going to have to throw the ball.' I did a good job throwing it."

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said that for a first start Robinson did as good as expected.

"Michael did real well, everything considered," Paterno said. "Especially when we got to the point where we couldn't handle them up from and we had to throw so much."

Robinson completed a little more than 50 percent of his passes, but he knows that he missed some receivers that were open.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself," Robinson said. "Guys were open and I made some bad passes. This week, this is what I have to work on. I wasn't perfect, but we want to try to be."

Even with under a minute left in the game, Robinson still believed that he could lead them to victory by marching 99 yards.

"Just get our offense the ball," said Robinson thinking on the sideline. "We'll make things happen is all I kept telling myself."

With six seconds remaining, Robinson threw the ball as far as he could and after being tipped, Tony Johnson caught it and was tackled at the Wisconsin 16-yard line.

"It felt great," said Robinson of performance in his first start. "But it would have felt better if we were celebrating a win right now, but we're not. Hopefully we'll get it next week."