QB deserves better

For the 12 long weeks of this season, he's done the same -- he knows the drill by now.

He walks out of the locker room, dressed more dapperly than most of his teammates -- it's always a suit for him, even at home games -- and enters the media room.

When he comes in, there's only ever one seat he can sit in -- at the front, where Joe Paterno sits for his press conferences. He never sits around idly when he arrives --the reporters wait for him, 15 to 20 of them, encircling the seat in which he will sit, tape recorders poised.

So he takes a seat, unbothered, and politely answers the questions -- questions about the turnovers, the losing, the freshman quarterback he hears the fans chanting for. It's a mix of a lot of "Yeah, definitely," a couple lopsided grins and attempts to provide solutions as to why things are going wrong. And the blame for a loss -- he always puts that on himself.

If you ask this man, senior quarterback Zack Mills, how he's grown up in the tumultuous five years he's spent at Penn State, he'll inevitably point to his ability to do this -- come out and talk to the media, win or lose, injured or not. But in doing so, he's shown that he's grown up so much more -- he's had to -- than simply overcoming the shyness that he brought up from Ijamsville, Md., in the summer of 2000.

At the place in his life where he will be tomorrow -- playing in the final game of a college career that has seemingly lasted forever -- the most admirable part about him is the way in which he has remained so unaffected by the circumstances in which he's had to be a quarterback here, and simply goes out, every week, to do the very best job he can do.

He came in with a bang, doing everything imaginable in his redshirt freshman season, including leading his team back from an 18-point second-half deficit against Ohio State to give Paterno record-breaking win No. 324. Guys loved to talk about his field smarts, while girls swooned over his boyish good looks. Zack fever was universal; expectations were astronomical.

The 2002 season was more of the same -- at least at the beginning. A courageous rout of Nebraska earned him a standing ovation in class, and heroics such as a near comeback against Iowa proved he still had it.

The problem is, that's the best it ever got for him.

He had to step aside for the Larry Johnson show, at the tail end of 2002. There was a quarterback controversy, which began at his lone bowl game. Then, there was the booing, which started in 2003. Inconsistent wideouts have been a problem, this season and last, and the offensive line has been consistently subpar, allowing hits that leave Mills battered and nearly unable to stand back up. And the injuries -- elbow tendonitis, a sprained MCL, a separated shoulder, a concussion -- seemed to never cease.

That's a set of circumstances in which it's hard to say Mills was ever completely and totally put in a position to succeed. He never received that confidence from the coaching staff that he was the quarterback in whom the team believed, no matter what. And it isn't as though he had the supporting cast necessary to thrive.

The blame, however, always falls on him, the quarterback. The booing for an incomplete pass -- he gets that. The calls for a replacement occur most frequently at his position. He gets e-mails and phone messages, telling him to hang it up, telling him he's an awful player.

It doesn't matter how mature a person is, that kind of abuse can't ever be anything but heartbreaking. But, still, he presses on, never complaining.

"Zack Mills is going to leave Penn State as the No. 1 quarterback in Penn State history, statistically, with all the records he set, and he's getting booed by 100,000 people on Saturday," said Jesse Neumyer, Mills' former Penn State teammate and first roommate. "So if anybody's had a right to hold a grudge, to be upset, lash out at the media, it's him. And he hasn't done that."

Penn State took an early lead against Akron, who they beat 48 - 10. Zack Mills (7) ran the ball breaking numberous tackles to Penn State's second touchdown of the day.

Mills does have a right to hold a grudge, simply because everything about him is underappreciated. Lost in the losing is his ability to still throw beautiful, perfectly placed passes. While fans were booing him in the Iowa game earlier this fall, they were wholly unaware of the fact that he was still playing after taking a hit that left him with a concussion. And hidden in the cheers for freshman Anthony Morelli to come in was the truth that the majority of those fans have no reason to believe Morelli would fare better than Mills.

At Big Ten Media Day in July, Mills was, once again, surrounded by a circle of reporters, and was asked to consider the approaching senior season.

"People remember you for winning games," Mills said. "I want to be remembered as a winner."

With the team at 3-7, there isn't a chance Mills will be remembered for winning games. But he should be remembered as a winner in the sense that he's a survivor, a courageous man who's been through everything, but complained about nothing -- a 22-year old guy, who, in trying to make the best of a bad situation, deserves respect of the highest order.

Mills has served this team, loyally, for three and a half seasons, and, for the students who have gone to college in that span, he has, in many ways, defined Penn State football as much as Paterno has. And for that, he should get not a final chorus of booing, but a stadium of fans, on its feet, applauding him thunderously on his last hurrah.

"He's just got a special quality about him," Dave Carruthers, his high school coach, said. "He's Zack, and he'll always be that way."

And that alone -- just being Zack through all of this -- well, that's enough. Because despite what his critics, those who boo and even he, at times, might think, being Zack is a pretty darn good thing.