It started as an experiment.

Penn State football offensive coordinator Galen Hall, who spent 18 years as an assistant at Oklahoma and six as the head coach of Florida, had to figure out a way to use the plethora of southern-type speed that arrived on his doorstep in the offseason.

"We were just toying with the offense," redshirt freshman wide receiver Deon Butler said.

The Nittany Lions were 104th in total offense last season, 81st in rushing and 90th in passing. No Paterno team since the 2002 Lions, thanks to 2,000-yard rusher Larry Johnson, has been even close to offensive relevance.

"Change" certainly isn't Paterno's favorite word, but something had to be done about the offense.

To those close to the college game, the words "spread offense" and "Penn State" seem like antonyms.

"When I first got here, we did not do anything with the spread offense," fifth-year senior quarterback Michael Robinson said. "We just got the shotgun the year before I got in here."

Like all buzzwords, the spread offense is defined differently depending on whom you ask. The philosophy it's based on, though, is simple. Use three, four or even five receivers in order to create mismatch opportunities against an opposing defense. Utilize the option game, draw plays and screen passes to keep defenders confused.

Urban Meyer's spread offense used last year at Utah gave national attention to the trend, even though the philosophy behind the offensive evolution has been around for quite a while.

Hall's version of the spread includes a lot of running plays from the shotgun, like quarterback lead option draws, but also more traditional sets like the I-formation or a three-wide receiver, one-running back ace formation.

Butler said one of the biggest components of spring practice was figuring out what part of the spread philosophy the Lions would be able to use.

"A big part of what [Hall] wanted to see was our downfield blocking," Butler said. "The blocking was the biggest thing once we were able to block downfield and learn some techniques to block some bigger guys because they wanted to establish a running game."

Robinson said he's able to change the play at the line of scrimmage a lot more this year than last year because his receivers have the ability to adjust quickly and block well downfield.

"Now, they've given me the ability to change the protection," Robinson said. "Teams have brought us into situations where they brought an all out blitz, and we had one back [in the backfield] without a lead blocker, and I had to change it to a pass."

Against Northwestern earlier in the year, Robinson said he recognized Northwestern's defense was ready to bring an all out blitz. Running back Tony Hunt was alone in the backfield, and Robinson called an audible in order to use Hunt as an extra blocker against the oncoming blitz.

The play worked. Robinson hit wide-open wide receiver Derrick Williams for the game-winning touchdown.

Robinson said the spread scheme has made it a lot easier for him to find those wide-open receivers because it forces the defense to reveal itself.

"When you spread the field out you can't just put a whole bunch of people around the ball," he said.

"Now, I'm glad we have it deeply integrated into our offense ... [Hall] is going to put the right guys on the field at the right times to give us an advantage over a defense."

The Lions right now are 35th in total offense and 20th in scoring offense, a huge improvement over last year.

So far, Hall seems to have mixed up the right set of offensive chemicals.