EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Only five days before Penn State was to play Michigan State for the Big Ten Championship and a berth in the Bowl Championship Series, Joe Paterno cancelled practice.
But lest one think the bespectacled one is mellowing in his old age, it was not out of the kindness of his heart that he gave his players some unexpected time off. Actually, he kicked his team off of the field in disgust.
Literally.
"It was Tuesday, the hardest day of practice," quarterback Michael Robinson said. "We were stinking the place up offensively. It was one of those days where the wideouts could not catch a single pass. It's just one of those things that happens, and he kicked us out of practice."
But after suffering Paterno's wrath, Robinson pulled the offense aside and challenged them with one question. What kind of offense do you want to be?
"I got the sense that everybody responded well," Robinson said. "That everybody knew what was at stake. They came out and played a great game."
Robinson's leadership has been the rock on which Penn State's offense has rested all year, and even on a day that nothing came easily, the Nittany Lions offense played just well enough to take home a Big Ten title.
Robinson's statistics weren't gaudy -- he only ended up throwing for 105 yards on 10 completions -- but he came up huge with both his legs and his arms when needed, putting the Lions ahead 17-0 with a 33-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
Before that two-play scoring drive which started with a 22-yard screen pass from Robinson to Tony Hunt, Paterno may have wanted to kick his offense off of the field again.
If Robinson's receivers had problems catching the ball on Tuesday, their hands didn't get any softer by Saturday when Deon Butler, Ethan Kilmer and Justin King all dropped passes that should have easily been caught.
Again, Robinson's leadership helped right the ship, and Butler recovered to catch his ninth touchdown pass of the season in the third quarter.
"We had to make plays, that's what I told them. I told the whole offense that," Robinson said. "Whether it is a big-time block on the offensive line, a big-time catch, or a big-time run, somebody has to make a play."
On Saturday it was Robinson who ended up making most of the plays with the game hanging in the balance since Tony Hunt did not run for many of his 90 yards until the Lions were trying to salt the game away in the fourth quarter.
The Spartans mixed up their defenses constantly for much of the first half, and at times it seemed as though the Penn State offense was having problems adjusting. Michigan State repeatedly walked their safeties up to the line to slow down Penn State's run game and often blitzed when Robinson dropped back.
"They blitzed us a lot," Robinson said. "Some of the coaches didn't think they'd blitz us as much, but when I did my scouting I said, 'Why wouldn't they blitz us every single play?' "
To counteract this, Penn State's offensive coaches Galen Hall and Jay Paterno made a number of changes that improved the offensive efficiency in the second half, including occasionally going with no huddle and trying to establish some screen passes to keep Michigan State's blitz under control.
"Jay has gotten maligned, unfairly I think. He has done a good job because he has stayed with Michael," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "What Galen has done, Galen has been a head coach. He has the right kind of temperament, the patience, the experience. They are upstairs working together and nobody has got an ego trip or anything."
Nevertheless, the offense on Saturday was far from pretty, but it was unquestionably good enough to clinch a Big Ten Title.
"I think we were ready; we looked focused but at the same time you want people to have a little bit more balance and things like that," Robinson said. "But once we got going we were okay."
