Here lies Zack Mills. He was too popular, too early, for his own good.
The epitaph on the tombstone of a Penn State football career.
It's sad that it has come to this. That after all he has accomplished, this would be the final line on Mills if he never played another game in the Blue and White.
After throwing four interceptions in last week's 21-7 loss to Boston College, it seems on campus that all but the staunchest of those in the Mills camp have left their leader for dead.
More than anything, Mills has been done in by the impossibly high expectations he has had to shoulder since leading those impressive comeback victories in 2001. By 2002 the "Zack for Heisman" banners were being hung around Beaver Stadium and, for a time, Mills was the most popular man on campus. All this for a sophomore at the time, mind you.
The lore of General Mills has already faded away to the ages for these people. His accomplishments in his first season, reduced to mere myth and legend. Evidently, three years to the college football fan is about the same as three millennia.
"Everybody relax," Joe Paterno said yesterday on the Penn State Radio Network. "Mills is going to be fine."
And he's right.
Lost in the shuffle of the interceptions was the fact that Mills really didn't have that bad of a game Saturday. Mills was the entire offense in the first half and started the game off 6-for-6 and 67 yards before having a pass deflected at the line and intercepted.
In the estimation of Mills and Paterno, only two of the four were legitimately Mills' fault.
Mills sounded like he was being buried alive Wednesday, with those fans fresh off the bandwagon supplying the shovels.
The fifth-year quarterback is ordinarily a soft-spoken guy, calm in every word he speaks with little emotion in his voice. But this week he just sounded exhausted as he spoke to reporters, being forced to recount last Saturday's game.
"I've never thrown four in a game," Mills said, morosely speaking of interceptions rather than touchdowns. "It just basically shows how quickly things can change. I always felt we had a chance to win, regardless of my performance. I thought I was playing pretty well for awhile. I kind of battle with myself mentally, I've never done that before, four in a game, and it was frustrating."
Mills has had to analyze those four frustrations dozens of time in the film
room this week and probably several hundred more times in his head before that. He reiterated Wednesday that the criticisms from media and fans used to bother him, but they don't any longer.
That's a good thing. Because as far as fan support goes, the horizon isn't looking very clear for Mills.
The clamoring among the masses for Michael Robinson has subsided somewhat recently, given that Slash Redux is currently more valuable to this team as a wide receiver.
In fact, there is a new faction that has risen in these first two weeks. A radical one based upon desperate thinking. There are people -- living through e-mail, the radio airwaves and the message boards -- who feel that these Nittany Lions would best be led by true freshman Anthony Morelli.
One fan saw fit to e-mail a two-page diatribe against Mills (that spelled his name "Zach" in the title, incidentally. And yes, it was even given a title) to the office, essentially saying that Mills had let him down for the last time. Replete with phrases in all caps and exclamation points, it was suggested that because Morelli was further along than either Mills or Robinson were in their first years, he should be given the job.
This may be a new low. No matter how strong of an arm the rookie from Pittsburgh has, it can't possibly make up for game experience, knowledge of the playbook and the savvy that comes with running a Division I-A offense for over three years. Don't forget that despite his talents, Morelli was not afforded much opportunity to throw the ball in his high-school's run-oriented offense.
Somehow lost in all of the bemoaning and criticism are the numbers. Heading into tomorrow's game against the University of Central Florida, Mills has accumulated 5,852 passing yards. In the first quarter when he gets 18 yards through the air, he will become Penn State's all-time passing leader, surpassing Tony Sacca.
Mills has 15 school records and will likely have 17 by the time this season, and his career draw to a close.
But at this rate, the fans won't remember him for that. Rather than being recognized as one of the best signal-callers in school history, Mills is on pace to be defined by the overall slump of the program. A what-have-you-done-for-me-lately scenario.
And that isn't fair. If there was ever a player in recent memory who represents the ideal of what a Penn State quarterback is supposed to be, it's Zack Mills.
Don't bury him.
