It's Monday, and, therefore, you should be about ready to come down from the emotional -- and, of course, drunken -- high that was your Penn State football weekend.
So instead of telling you about all that was glorious on Saturday, here's a taste of the troubling reality that still exists in the Penn State football world.
Utility player Michael Robinson is, apparently, going to play quarterback, not wide receiver, next season.
Or at least that's what Robinson says he thinks the plan is right now. Actually, he's not really 100 percent sure where he'll play next season.
Which is precisely the problem.
His part-time position coach, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno, also said M-Rob at quarterback is the plan for the 2005 season. Then, he hedged on that a little.
"I'm selfish, I want his ass back at quarterback next year. Which it will be," he said. "Well, I shouldn't say. I don't want to speak for Joe [Paterno]. You can just say that I don't want to speak for Joe. But that's been the plan. He only started practicing exclusively at wide out for the last week-and-a-half or so."
This could all be easily overlooked after the we-finally-did-it win the Nittany Lions got against Michigan State. But, of course, that doesn't make them any less of an issue with this team.
And it rippled to the surface after the game as it so often does. I've found that, when Penn State sports teams win a few games, the players often come clean about why they had been losing. For example, this question: when is the offense most effective?
Normally this would elicit something along the lines of the uninformative, cookie-cutter response "when we're executing" or "we gotta execute."
Quarterback Zack Mills, however, shared a theory on Saturday that shed a little more realistic light on the situation.
"When everything was set, when everybody was set in one position, to be honest with you," he said.
Then, someone asked who, exactly, is "everybody?" And, well, it turns out that "everybody" is actually one person.
Said Mills: "Like ... Mike."
Yes, that Mike. As in Michael Robinson.
And, you know, I think Mills is on to something because, well, get this:
"Last two games of the season he was a wide receiver, we win two games," Mills said. "[In the 2002 season] we had the role of Mike moving around all different places. I think the talent was so deep on that team that we were able to overcome that sometimes and just make plays with BJ [Bryant Johnson] and LJ [Larry Johnson], and those types of guys. Last season [2003], Mike played running back at the end of the year, we get one win out of it at least."
That sounds pretty astute, but then Mills really hit the nail on the head when he added: "You want him playing at QB -- that's fine."
See, this is not to say that Robinson shouldn't be a quarterback. Lord knows he has the tools to be one. He can toss a ball 40 yards downfield with a flick of his wrist, and everyone already knows about his notable speed, size and strength.
But none of that has ever been the problem with Robinson's performances under center. The problem is he doesn't have the feel for coverage, blitzes and the pocket presence that you would find in someone who is wholly focused on playing quarterback. Because Robinson isn't.
And he can't be. He's always had to partially think about playing either QB or RB or WR or even punt returner. The best quarterbacking performance of his career was a 379-yard outing against Wisconsin in 2003 - a game for which he was tabbed the starter at the beginning of that week of practice.
So, believe me, none of this is meant to pick on Robinson or suggest that strong-armed true freshman quarterback Anthony Morelli will fly out of the phone booth he's been hiding in during his wasted redshirt. (The big "S" that will be on his chest showing everyone he's here to somehow "save the program.")
The point here is, the disastrous way that the Penn State coaching staff has used Robinson in his first three years of eligibility can not continue. But it looks like it might. They need to figure out how they've so brilliantly wasted this talented athlete and put that foolish practice to rest.
Even if all this optimism over a 37-13 win over Michigan State is hiding the problem now, it surely won't if the Lions find themselves in this same position next year because they refused to recognize their mistakes.
