Part of the plan was to have him relinquish the workhorse title. That part, Michael Robinson hoped, was mostly behind him. But on Saturday, he looked like more of a utility player/ running back than he did a quarterback.

Robinson spoke of the many times during the Nittany Lions 23-13 victory against South Florida when he was forced -- willingly and unwillingly -- to create offense with his feet.

He ran the ball 18 times on Saturday, three more than starting tailback Tony Hunt, finishing with 39 yards, resulting in a 2.2 yards per carry average.

"I wouldn't say running for my life but, some of it was a little bit of improvisation," Robinson said of his scrambling.

The Bulls shut down the Lions offensive attack for much of the first half. The two touchdowns the Lions scored before halftime were set up by the Lions defense. Cornerback Alan

Zemaitis returned a fumble for a score, and an interception by safety Chris Harrell led to a one-yard touchdown by tailback Tony Hunt.

If not for those plays, the game could have been much closer than it already was.

Wondering why? It all starts up front.

The less-than-stellar performance displayed by the offensive line forced Robinson to make quicker decisions for much of the game. At games end, he was sacked three times for a loss of 30 yards. The Lions only threw the ball 15 times.

For the majority of the first half, it seemed like every place the Lions tried to run there was always a Bull's defender there to make the play.

"We kind of made an adjustment because some of the things we were doing they were kind of stunting to the strength of the formation," Robinson said.

"Coach Paterno came in at half time and said 'Lets just line up and go man for man and run it down their throat and see where we go from there'. Tony busted off some great runs in the second half."

The Lions said they expected to see a lot of blitzing from USF, but center Lance Antolick said he thought they were blitzing on just about every down.

The line had two members, Antolick and Robert Price, who made their first career starts on Saturday. No one knows whether or not Antolick, starting center, or Price, starting right guard, will remain the starters for most of the season. Price was spelled often by Tyler Reed, who spent the entire week practicing with the second-team offense. Reed, who started last year at right guard, is working his way back up the depth chart after returning from a suspension for his involvement in a January bow-and-arrow incident.

The encouraging signs came in the second half when the adjustments were made. Hunt broke off two impressive runs, one on draw play for 70 yards.

"South Florida threw us some things that we weren't ready for, you know, and we have to always expect the unexpected," Robinson said.

At times, the crowd grew a bit restless with the lack of inactivity from the offense. With a week of adjustments planned by the offense, they can expect a different result against Cincinnati.

"They can expect more than what they saw today, that's for sure," Lance Antolick said.

"We have a lot of improving to do this week, we'll be ready to go next week."