If it seems that southpaw Zack Mills has been quarterback at Penn State forever, it’s because he has.

The 6-3, 214 pound quarterback from Ijamsville, Md. has had a roller coaster 5-year career at Penn State. Mills is a poised, confident and athletic quarterback with the ability to make plays running or throwing, but has also been known for his mistakes. Since arriving in Happy Valley in 2000, Mills has been everything from hero to goat, leading comeback drives and throwing costly interceptions.

“Zack is an outstanding quarterback,” said Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. “He has been in games and winning for us. He has his own leadership qualities and I think the kids enjoy having him there. He has confidence in his ability.”

In 2001, the red-shirt freshman looked to be the savior of the Nittany Lion football team. Mills came off the bench to lead Penn State to comeback wins over Northwestern, Ohio State, and Michigan State. He ended the season throwing for 1,669 yards, shattering the freshman record of 1,037.

For his performance, he received Big Ten all-freshman team honors from The Sporting News.

In his second season playing, Mills was the lone sophomore up for the Davey O’Brien Award semifinalists and threw for 2,417 yards and 17 touchdowns. He was an honorable mention all-Big Ten selection and led Penn State to a 9-4 record.

Last year expectations were high for Mills, but unfortunately for the Nittany Lion faithful, Penn State had a poor season, going 3-9. Mills missed a few games because of injuries and was often benched in favor of do-it-all athlete Michael Robinson.

Mills entered the season with 5,400 career passing yards, 470 short of passing Tony Sacca’s school record of 5,869; 814 career pass attempts (11 shy of breaking Sacca’s mark of 824) and 32 career touchdown passes, 10 short of breaking the mark of 41 held by Todd Blackledge and Sacca.

So far this season Mills has thrown for 591 yards and 4 touchdowns. It has been a season that has thus far mirrored his career at Penn State.

In a career game against Akron, Mills ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown and threw for two touchdowns beating Akron 48-10. He became the first Penn State player to ever accomplish that feat.

In his next game against Boston College Mills threw for 254 yards, but was intercepted four times and lost the game 21-7.

“The first one was really kind of a fluke,” Paterno said. “They were blitzing and we had checked off to a play. When he threw the ball, the ball was deflected by the kid who made a really good play out of it. When it came down, it was in an area where somebody could get it. I don’t think you could blame him on that one.

“The receiver was a little bit too fast coming over on the second one,” Paterno continued. “He should have stayed more in the middle and gave that backside safety a chance to grab it. I was glad they intercepted one of them to be frank with you. It was fourth down and we were trying to get the ball in the end zone. When you get behind as we did and we were kicking ourselves and hurting ourselves, the quarterback has to try to make something happen. I think that is what Zack did. The one that I would be critical of him, and there again the tight end did not run the right route, was when he tried to force the ball in over the end zone. That is the only one I felt maybe he could see what was happening and maybe should not have thrown it.”

Last week Penn State beat Central Florida 37-13, but Mills had six turnovers (4 fumbles, 2 interceptions).

Paterno still has confidence in his quarterback.

“I thought offensively we played poorly and we still won by 24 points,” Paterno said. “To Zack’s credit he did some things when he had to. Obviously I’d like to eliminate some of the mistakes, he did pretty well.”

“I told him he should throw the ball to me,” quipped Robinson. “Seriously, I told him to have a short memory. Zack has been to the top before and he is a great athlete, he will be fine.”