The train wreck that is Penn State football rambles on.

Where to start this week?

First stop.

Michael Robinson may very well be the best athlete on the Penn State roster, but that fact alone does not mean he "needs" to be on the field as a tailback.

Just because there's a possibility that he may be more athletic than say, Austin Scott or Tony Hunt doesn't give the coaching staff the justification to keep the two freshmen on the sidelines. What is of importance here is who is a better tailback, not who is a better athlete. The decision isn't one in the same.

Again, it's not a matter of the team not being talented enough to win, it's a matter of the coaching staff not putting the team's most talented players on the field to put Penn State in a position to win.

Both Scott and Hunt are better tailbacks than Robinson and the staff needs to play them at the position, even if it means delegating Robinson to cleanup duty as the No. 2 quarterback behind Zack Mills. It's unfortunate, especially for Robinson, who, aside from being a pretty good quarterback, is also a class act.

Still, Carl Lewis is one of the best pure athletes in the world. That doesn't mean he can play tailback. Well, maybe for Penn State, if he still has a few years of eligibility remaining.

Bottom line: a running back needs more than just athleticism to play the position.

Not faulting the man himself but Robinson's appearance on Saturday as tailback made absolutely no impact on the game. The coaching staff does the rest of the team a disservice by keeping Robinson there, not the least of which is the fact that the Lions simply have yet to win with that novelty.

Next stop.

As the final seconds of the game waned off the clock, tight end Damone Jones took off his helmet and faced his team as he yelled, "we [expletive] gave it to them." Here's a senior who has been relegated to special teams showing a much-needed display of emotion. He enters the final weeks of his football career with very little to be happy about, but he still knows that the loss on Saturday was unacceptable.

The rest of the team should note Jones' outburst for the future. Instead of trying to find the "positives" to come out of the game, how about the Lions do some soul searching and start thinking about who will be the leaders of the team next year.

The Lions need someone who is vocal, and who isn't afraid to hurt anyone's feelings.

Other players said, "I'm not that type of player," the one who is going to be the guy who calls people out when stupid mental mistakes are constantly made.

Instead, how about you be that type of player because acting as the soft-spoken nice guy hasn't worked yet this season. Not to mention there are only two games left. Why not start now?

Penn State needs more players to be critical of others, to get in the face of a teammate who consistently makes mistakes and who can shoulder the responsibility without giving the excuse of "we're a young team."

Which brings us to the third stop.

Two players after the game said that they knew the media and fans were tired of hearing the "youth" defense for why Penn State has fallen flat this year.

Yet, not one player or coach will admit that the implication that a young team cannot win even exists. That's because it doesn't.

The list of schools nationwide that have comparable numbers of young and inexperienced players on their rosters this year, and have been winning games, does not need to be mentioned to know that Penn State has the capacity to win. Just because this team replaced a good portion of its' starters from 2002 isn't enough to explain anything that has happened yet this year.

Not a 2-8 record. Not losing to Northwestern.

The accountability does not fall on the youth of the team. It goes back to the coaches who make the decisions to put the wrong personnel on the field.

Robinson at tailback is just a start.