If you were to come anywhere near refuting his season-long assessment of Michael Robinson, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, most likely, would quickly tell you not to question him.

He, after all, has been coaching for 55 years. He knows a great player when he sees one.

Robinson, ever confident and charismatic, believes in himself just as much. And he wasn't afraid to say it -- even after Saturday's 14-7 loss to Northwestern in which the utility player performed below his expectations.

"Yeah, it's true," he said, when asked if he thinks that he is the best player in the country. "I'm not gonna say I'm not one of the greatest players in the country."

But that claim has been getting harder and harder to back the past few weeks, as Robinson has had a tough stretch of games, spanning to last week's sub-par performance in a 21-10 loss to Ohio State.

In that game, Robinson played quarterback while Zack Mills was out with a concussion. Though he did evade the Buckeyes pass rush enough to gain 58 yards on the ground, Robinson only completed seven of his 21 passes for 69 yards with two interceptions.

The troubling trend continued Saturday. This time, it was at a new position (wide receiver) with a completely different set of problems.

There were some dropped passes, an interception thrown off of a trick play and a few moments when Robinson appeared to be open downfield, yet Mills was unable to get him the ball. On one particular play in the second quarter, Robinson ran a post pattern off of a play-action fake. It looked like Mills saw Robinson for a moment but elected to dump it off to Isaac Smolko for a short gain.

As a part-time quarterback himself, Robinson said he understood why Mills couldn't get it to him because of the pass rush, but he admitted it was yet another missed opportunity.

"Oh, yeah, no doubt about that -- [they were] touchdowns," he said.

And so Robinson's frustration started to build, and when Mills threw deep to Robinson on two plays in the same series during the third quarter, he complained to an official for a pass inference flag after both passes had sailed over head.

"It's frustrating," he said. "In big situations, I expect to step up and make big plays -- that's just what I do. I mean, mentally, that's just what I do."

He had a chance to do that at the end of the fourth quarter. With the Nittany Lions driving for what could have been the game-tying touchdown, Mills threw over the middle to Robinson, who had gotten inside his man near the goal line.

But when Mills' perfectly timed pass hit Robinson in the hands, it didn't stay. It bounced to the ground. And Penn State, along with the man hoping to prove he is one of the best in the country, tasted disappointment yet again.