If only Penn State football fans could have seen it. It would have been a welcomed sight. A sight to behold, in fact.

At Monday's practice, the Nittany Lions' first practice since their six-turnover debacle against the University of Central Florida, the Penn State offense took care of the football. Turnovers were scarce.

And here might be the best news of all for the Penn State faithful: quarterback Zack Mills, who has thrown a combined six interception in his last two game, didn't throw a single pick in that practice.

Or, at least that's what his backup-turned-top-receiving-target Michael Robinson said to the media on his conference call yesterday.

"He had a great practice [Monday]," Robinson said of Mills. "He made all the right reads, all the right throws."

Then, Robinson added with a little laugh: "And no interceptions."

That piece of information is probably about as good -- or specific -- as it will get for the Penn State fan base this week regarding the status of the Lions' maligned starting quarterback. Mills will not be made available to the media this week prior to Penn State's Big Ten conference opener against Wisconsin this Saturday in Madison.

His head coach and teammates, though, are convinced that the levelheaded Mills will be just fine.

When asked repeatedly about Mills' shaky performance at his weekly press conference yesterday, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was quick to deflect criticism of the fifth-year senior.

"Let's get off of Zack," he said. "Zack is playing good, solid football ... Zack is fine."

Robinson reiterated that Mills "is always the same guy" no matter what is troubling him. And this week has been no different so far. But though Mills is apparently unfazed by his turnover struggles of late, Robinson still offered some encouraging words.

"I just tell him that he has to forget about those things," Robinson said.

Of course, it's far from accurate to say Mills is the only point of concern for the Lions when it comes to turnovers. Mills was involved, in some way, with all six of the turnovers committed against UCF, but there were only two in which he was solely responsible.

Fine-tuning the snap exchange between Mills and center E.Z. Smith is one obvious way Penn State can easily cut down on its turnovers from the previous game. Two fumbled snaps against UCF resulted in Lions turnovers. But even something like handing the ball to someone between your legs can be more scientific than it sounds. Sometimes even that can even be difficult.

"It depends on the type of block the center has to make [after the ball is snapped]," Robinson said. "When the center has to make a tough block, that makes the snap tough."

According to Robinson, Smith and Mills put some extra time into perfecting their exchange at Monday's practice.

"They worked on the center exchange after practice with someone on top of the center, rushing the center," Robinson said.

Then, another little laugh.

"No fumbles," he added.