No simple task. There were the twin emotional traumas that beset Joe Paterno and beleaguered Penn State as it battled No. 20 Wisconsin before 82,179 redclad crazies, the largest Camp Randall Stadium crowd in history.

• A possibly career-ending concussion to backup-quarterback / starting wide-receiver Michael Robinson that culled up four-year-old memories of Adam Taliaferro's collision with huge Ohio State fullback Derek Combs.

• A bicycle accident involving Paterno's son-in-law Christopher Hort that put him in the Altoona Hospital Intensive Care Unit.

• Add a nerve-wracking, frustrating evening watching the Nittany Lions trying to slow down a 270-pound tractor-trailer named Matt Bernstein with a game, well-conceived, but sometimes outmanned defense that kept the Lions in semi-contention before losing 16-3.

Change location to the indoor echo chamber that is the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, where Minnesota (No. 19 in The Associated Press poll) upped its record to 4-0 as 91-year-old Gopher coaching legend Murray Warmath watched approvingly. The Gophers routed Northwestern 43-17 with a superb blend of high-powered offense and a defense that choked off talented N.U. quarterback Brett Basanez.

"This is a special team," he told a couple of press box observers. This from a crusty football lifer who passes out compliments like the Cubs win World Series.

As St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Bob Sansevere would discover, this is a special man.

In Ann Arbor, Michigan (No. 18 in the coaches' poll, 19 A.P.) upped its record to 3-1 with defense. "Magnificent all day," coach Lloyd Carr told the A.P.

After a promising 2-0 start that included a 30-24 upset at Oregon, Indiana (2-2) returned to life-as-usual, with an announced Memorial Stadium crowd of 24,471, barely 45% of capacity, losing to Michigan State 30-20, unable to stop usually-klutzy Michigan State quarterback Drew Stanton.

No. 15 Purdue (3-0) found itself in an unwelcome taffy-pull at stubborn Illinois, but Kyle Orton's typical brilliance led the Boilermakers to a 38-30 victory over the Illini.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, may have shut down the infamous firetywillingham.com website for at least a couple of weeks with a thunderous 38-3 rout of Washington.

In Madison, the venerable Paterno stood helplessly as his top two quarterbacks -- starter Zack Mills, who was knocked out of the game after just two plays, and Robinson -- were gone by the second quarter.

And word of Hort's accident reached Madison shortly before the half. Paterno's wife, Sue, and Penn State athletic director Tim Curley left at halftime.

Paterno, already worried about Mills -- who suffered a right shoulder injury and, obviously, Robinson -- got word right after the game and left with his son Jay, the Nits' quarterbacks coach. Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley gamely stood in.

"Seeing that happen to (Robinson) brought back a lot of memories," Bradley told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rookie Penn State beat reporter Chico Harlan. "Any time the (stretcher) comes out, you get a sickness in your stomach."

For Bradley, this was particularly personal, because he coached Taliaferro, the incredibly courageous young man who played cornerback on the 2000 Lions and collided with Ohio State's Combs on a late-game short-yardage play that produced an under-the-helmet blow that left Taliaferro immobile on the Ohio Stadium turf and a crowd of 98,144 silent.

The memories brought pain as Bradley battled for composure.

"The team prayed for him," center E.Z. Smith told Harlan. "This is the time you worry about him as a person."

For Bradley, the flashback was more vivid. "I saw a gleam in (Taliaferro's) eyes when I put him in (at Ohio State) and said, 'You're finishing this one out.' " Bradley told Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bob Ford. "Then to see him a little later laying on the ground with his eyes looking at me like, 'Help me, coach."... Seeing that happen to Michael brought back a lot of memories."

Fortunately for Robinson's physical future, he began to recover at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center and returned to State College Sunday with assistant coach Bill Kenney.

In the game, the Lions fought distraction, a massively physical Wisconsin team that is building a punishing defensive reputation and a thunderous crowd. Unfortunately for Penn State that combination proved too much and brought an eighth straight road loss.

"It's hard to put in a(n offensive) gameplan when you've lost two of your offensive weapons," Bradley conceded.

It was left to Chris Ganter, son of former Lions offensive coordinator Fran Ganter -- who is now director of football operations -- to conduct the offense.

But unfortunately for him, the Badgers' rowdy defense, led by last week's Big Ten Defensive Player-of-the-Week Erasmus James, a 6-feet, 4-inch, 270 pound defensive end, never gave him a chance.

James came up with two sacks, countless pass rush pressures and simply was ringleader of a defense that spent the night in Penn State's backfield.

"Sometimes when (quarterbacks) see me come off the edge," James told the Wisconsin State Journal's Tom Mulhern, "some of them -- they look at me and their eyes open up and they kind of curl up and that's when I get them."

Tailback Tony Hunt fumbled to set up Wisconsin's only touchdown, a five-yard scramble by quarterback John Stocco, and three Mike Allen field goals, set up by the godzillan rushes of Bernstein, did much of the rest.

Bernstein, an unlikely headliner, wasn't heavily recruited out of his Scarsdale, N.Y. high school. Whether he'd play at all was touch-and-go, because of the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur.

He said Wisconsin offensive coordinator Brian White had told him during the week to be ready.

"And I didn't believe him," he told A.P.'s Arnie Stapleton, "because who's gonna put in a 270-pound tailback."

He had fasted for the obligatory 24 hours, but in the locker room, gorged on oranges and turkey. "It's been a tough day," said Bernstein, who rushed for 62 yards during the Badgers' first third-quarter drive that resulted in a field goal. "I was happy (kickoff) was at 5 o'clock so I could play." He wound up with 123 yards in 27 carries and was a major part of the reason for a 37-minute, 23-second to 22:37 Wisconsin possession edge.

The Badgers face Illinois Saturday at Camp Randall and the Lions (2-2) travel to Minnesota.

At the HHH Metrodome, Warmath, who coached Minnesota to its only Rose Bowl appearances in 1961-2, watched as power runners Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney both ran for over 100 yards and chewed up Northwestern's defense.

"We always had a hard time getting running backs," Warmath told Sansevere. "We always lacked speed and speed means good running backs. These guys give you consistency and extra length. They can make long runs for touchdowns and hammer you too."

It has been 33 years since the wheelchair-confined Warmath had prowled the U sideline, but despite the removal of broken hip bonechips and a knee joint ... and pain from a snapped lower right shinbone which he incurred while bumping his wheelchair into a door jamb at his apartment (and for which he refused hospitalization), Murray Warmath still knows his x's and o's.

So does Glen Mason, the current Gophers coach, which is a key reason why Minnesota is off to a 4-0 start.

The Gophers host Penn State and the Wildcats (1-3) welcome Ohio State (3-0, No. 6 coaches, No. 7 A.P.)

In Ann Arbor, Michigan's next great pro receiving prospect, senior Braylon Edwards, marveled at his team's powerful defense.

"There's a certain kind of cheer when you get a fumble or an interception," he told A.P.'s Larry Lage.

There were plenty such cheers from the usual 111,000-plus in the "Big House" Saturday. The Wolverines (Nos. 18 coaches' poll, 19 A.P.) forced five turnovers, and led by defensive tackle Gabe Watson, sacked Iowa quarterback Drew Tate four times, sucking the life out of the Hawkeyes' offense.

"We have great respect for Michigan's ability to create turnovers," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz told the Chicago Tribune's Reid Hanley. "Again, it's not us helping them out, they help themselves."

Indiana, which began coach Gerry DiNardo's third season with major optimism after wins over Central Michigan and Oregon, appears vulnerable now.

The defense is in shambles and Michigan State's talented-but-awkward at times Q.B. Drew Stanton ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns as the Spartans (2-2) overcame an early deficit.

He became the first M.S.U. quarterback since Charlie Baggett in 1975 to run for over 100 yards. "It was just something we thought would be there," he said to the South Bend Tribune's Vaughn McClure afterward.

It always is. Indiana (2-2) gets, ulp, Michigan in Bloomington this Saturday. Michigan State travels to Iowa.

In No. 15 Purdue's win at Illinois (2-2), the Boilermakers ran up the usual 500-plus yards' offense (515 this time), but had to hang on, after taking an early 7-0 lead when the Illini botched an end-around that set up the first of Kyle Orton's four touchdown passes.

"They're never easy in this conference," said Purdue coach Joe Tiller, "and they never will be. And I thought Illinois really really came out playing inspired football."

While Orton put up another typically-astronomic numbers -- 35-of-50 passes for 366 yards, including 3 T.D.s to Taylor Stubblefield -- Illinois Q.B. Jon Beutjer kept the Illini close enough to make the Boilers sweat.

"We knew coming into the game they hadn't been challenged defensively both running and throwing the ball(in 51-0 victory over Syracuse and a 59-7 romp over Ball State)," Beutjer said. "They don't do a great job stopping the run."

That may be argued at Syracuse, whose highly-touted running back Walter Reyes was shut down in West Lafayette.

But the Boilers, spreading the Illini defenders field-wide, certainly gave the Notre Dame coaching staff a file-full of videotape to consider.

Speaking of the 3-1 Irish, they may stretch the Boiler defense yet again as Brady Quinn threw for four touchdowns -- two to Matt Shelton, two to Anthony Fasano in the rout of Washington (0-3).

"I would say it was our best performance, but we still have so much room to grow," said Quinn, the Dublin (Ohio) Coffman H.S. product to the Chicago Sun-Times' John Jackson. "It's nice, but it should have been more."

Just what Joe Tiller wanted to hear. Purdue has not won at Notre Dame since 1974.