Long before Sept. 3, Michael Robinson had his senior finale scripted, and that's all you need to know about the 2005 season.

Take it back to Feb. 10, when it was weather for fur-collared jackets and Timberlands. Seven months before the opening kickoff, most people weren't thinking about football, but Robinson already knew how football would be, at Penn State, that upcoming fall.

He would be a quarterback, the quarterback. He would lead this team. He did not regret his decision to come to school here. And, in the fall, he and his teammates would stun the nation.

"It's my turn," he said at the time. "My stepfather tells me all the time, you guys didn't have to land the No. 1 recruit in the country, you guys didn't

have to land the No. 1 defensive back in the country, you guys didn't have to have one of the top recruiting classes in the country, this year. And he got me thinking, could things be falling in place? Maybe, maybe not. But it's setting the perfect stage to really shock college football and send Coach Paterno out winning, whenever it may be, with the program rebuilt."

Penn State is now No. 8 in the nation, with an unblemished 6-0 record through three Big Ten games. College football has been shocked, and the Penn State community is in a collective state of elated disbelief. Robinson's prognostication is right on course.

He's not surprised, though. Not even impressed. Saturday night, after upsetting then-No. 6 Ohio State, he was as chill as ever in the media room, hardly looking the part of a guy who had just won Penn State's biggest game of the century. He's just following the script.

The words to this story started to take shape after the Nov. 20, 2004 Michigan State game, when Robinson inherited the team from outgoing senior quarterback Zack Mills. Mike Rob and his boys had a concept in their heads, of all the struggles and disappointments they had endured the past four years being erased by one undefeated national championship team. Coach Paterno had told their class, when they arrived as freshmen, that Penn State would win a national championship with the group of guys sitting in that room. Now just one season remained.

By February, Robinson felt sure enough about the fall to let his vision be known. Speedy freshmen, senior leaders with passion, and a sense of comfort and explosiveness in the pocket made him feel sure. The fact that his teammates were sure, too, made him even more convinced.

Robinson was willing to lay it all out, because he knew that his team could and would follow his script to the letter. He didn't write all the details, like the last-chance fourth-and-15 against Northwestern or the gladiator hit on Minnesota safety Brandon Owens.

His co-authors -- members of the senior core -- filled in some.

"He'll run for a G, pass for two Gs," senior cornerback Alan Zemaitis said with a grin, all the way back in April.

Halfway through the season, Robinson has 338 net yards rushing and 1,108 yards in the air. One thousand and 2,000 aren't that far off.

"You won't catch him, man," senior defensive end Matthew Rice added. "Once he's out in the open, he's gonna score every time."

He hasn't broken a big run every game, but Robinson's been more elusive than ever and certainly hard to catch. And, he has five rushing touchdowns.

These are asides, though. All the important events -- a bowl game, an undefeated season, reestablishment of the program -- came straight from Robinson and trickled on down. They have been deemed a certainty since the winter.

In high school, Robinson competed in the long jump for his track and field team. His coaches told him then, "Before you jump, envision yourself jumping, envision yourself jumping far."

Robinson has done the same with football. He has envisioned this season, envisioned it taking his team far. How far? He -- and his teammates -- say Rose Bowl, and they say it together after every practice. The team says that, because it runs one-quarter on speed, one-quarter on talent and the rest on heart, and it runs along the course Robinson has charted for it.

Any coach, though, would tell his team to take it one game at a time. Next is Michigan; consult the script.

"I'm always envisioning myself beating Michigan and beating Ohio State, yeah, back-to-back," Robinson said. "We could go 9-2, but we lost to those two teams and people are gonna say, 'Well, they didn't beat anybody.' We really have to make a statement."

This was in June. The country found out Saturday, but Robinson has known for months.