If there are boos when his name is announced on senior day, Zack Mills will be ready for them.

He's hoping for cheers, of course. But, heck, by now, the fifth-year senior quarterback has learned to expect the worst. That, if nothing else, is what his career has taught him: Be ready for anything.

And even as a precocious redshirt freshman and sophomore, he always looked prepared, didn't he? Like John Elway and Joe Montana cool-under-pressure -- that was his MO.

He could make a botched snap that sailed over his head into a 31-yard gain and a season that looked disastrous into hope for the future of Penn State football.

Back then, when he would come off of the bench to replace starter Matt Senneca during the 2001, there were no boos. Not even the slightest fear that there would be, actually.

There were cheers that rippled through Beaver Stadium instead, because everyone knew he could turn a seemingly insurmountable deficit into a Nittany Lions victory.

And, unassuming as he was then, Mills was always at least subconsciously aware that he was capable of such things, too. During the 2001 Northwestern game with 1:39 left, the ball on the Penn State 48-yard line, the Lions trailing 35-31, he entered the huddle for the first time all day and said: "What's up fellas? You ready to take this in?"

They were. And they did, with Mills completing five of his eight passes for 54 yards and the game-winning score, a 4-yard toss to running back Eric McCoo, who was wide open in the flat.

Of the four victories Mills led in 2001, three were of the come-from-behind variety, and Mills' second come-off-the-bench-to-lead-a-comeback-win performance came in his very next game, against Ohio State.

To this day, the game stands as his best collegiate performance. In addition to running for 166 yards and a touchdown, Mills went 17-of-32 for 280 yards and two touchdowns, leading an 18-point comeback that clinched Penn State coach Joe Paterno's record-breaking 324th victory. His 418 yards of total offense set a Penn State single-game record.

People were a little excited about Mills' heroics against Northwestern, but after the Ohio State game, he was a campus celebrity.

Eventually, "General Mills" -- as he was affectionately called -- was emblazoned, in some form or another, on so many pieces of the Blue and White regalia. Students wore shirts that said "Zack Attack" and fans hung banners at Beaver Stadium that read "Zack Mills for Heisman."

Though the Lions just barely missed making a bowl game in 2001, Mills looked ready as ever to fulfill the prophecy as the 2002 season began. He was 19-of-31 for 259 yards in a 40-7 throttling of then-No. 8 Nebraska and, then, 23-of-44 for 399 yards and four touchdowns in a failed comeback attempt against an Iowa team that eventually landed a berth in the Orange Bowl.

Now, it almost seems like that 42-35 loss to the Hawkeyes was a sign of things to come. Mills' best efforts brought his team to the brink, and yet it fell just short. A similar thing happened to Mills and the Lions two weeks later in a 27-24 loss to Michigan. Mills went 19-of-31 for 264 yards and two touchdowns, but Penn State lost in overtime.

Mentioning just that game, however, skips over the previous game on the road against Wisconsin, a game that many consider an unfortunate turning point in Mills' career. After the tough Iowa loss, the lefty was gritty and masterful in Madison, throwing for 287 yards while completing 21 of his 37 passes.

At that point, though, it was just Mills doing what every expected of him, leading his team to a 34-31 victory against the No. 19 team in the country. It turned out to be the last time the Lions beat a ranked team in the quarterback's career.

But another thing fans saw in that game might have helped bring about the Mills everyone sees now. In the first quarter, when Mills recovered a fumble at the goal line and dove into the end zone, he came up clutching his arm. Though he valiantly finished the game, it was later revealed that Mills had sprained the AC joint in his shoulder.

Some have argued that Mills hasn't been the same since.

Toward the end of the 2002 season, his numbers dropped a little, but few worried about it at the time. It was just assumed that Mills was taking a back seat to the Heisman campaign of his running back, Larry Johnson, who totaled more than 2,000 and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.

However, he probably would have preferred a backseat to sitting at the forefront of the collision course that was the 2003 season.

Penn State lost four players to the first round of the NFL draft after posting a 9-4 record in 2002. The attrition left Mills with an offense that was terrible and a young defense that wasn't much better.

His numbers dropped drastically from the career highs he set in 2002. Bogged down by nagging injuries and a quarterback controversy with Michael Robinson in 2003, Mills had 52 fewer completions, 1,013 fewer passing yards and 11 fewer touchdown passes.

What seemed worse, though, is how he just didn't look the same. That's when the boos -- and the calls another quarterback -- began. Mills looked tight out there, many fans said, and he just couldn't make the big plays appear out of thin air like he once did.

And the Lions limped to a 3-9 record, the worst in the Paterno Era.

This season, 2004, has been relatively similar. Mills is always banged up, but he's managed to gut out a couple quality performances.

Again, the team is losing instead of winning, the fans are calling for a new quarterback and Mills has a slightly greater penchant for throwing interceptions than he does for making the big plays that he did when he was the freshman who every fan wanted in the game. After 10 games this season, Mills has completed 144 of his 250 passes (58 percent) for 1,617 yards, eight touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

And, tomorrow, Mills will play in his last collegiate football game. As he leaves Penn State, he will hold at least 17 school records, achieved during a career, which has been, for lack a better word, muddled.

Some of it was glorious ... some was unpleasant.

But the journey from savoir to goat appeared to be an amazing -- if not puzzling -- one indeed.