STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Rashard Casey finally got his wish: a few snaps with a big game on the line.

Penn State trailed on a muggy afternoon at Miami when Joe Paterno sent his No. 2 quarterback into the game, hoping for a drive to win it. Casey promptly threw an ugly interception. Kevin Thompson returned the next series to throw the game-saving TD bomb.

"Thanks for pulling me out," Casey recalls telling Thompson.

"Don't worry about it," he said Thompson answered. "You've pulled me out before, and it's not going to be the last time either of us do that."

Penn State's two-quarterback platoon had worked flawlessly: Casey has provided sensational relief when Thompson and the offense has struggled. Paterno says he switches his quarterbacks by whim, and they've made him look like a genius so far. Every game, one of them is on.

"They both have a little something different they bring to the table, which gives you the chance to change the game around a little bit if you're stymied," he said.

Saturday against Illinois, Casey repaid Thompson for Miami. After Thompson's third interception, Casey quickly led a scoring strike, then pulled one of those circus stunts.

He stepped up to avoid a lineman, spun past a second rusher, pirouetted to make the first lineman miss again, then found open turf. He dashed behind his lead blocker, shoved him aside and hurtled through two more tacklers into the end zone to put the Nittany Lions (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) ahead for good.

"He's a human highlight film," said fullback Mike Cerimele.

Last year, Penn State had nowhere to turn when Thompson and the offense struggled. Now, Casey is something of an antidote -- whether Paterno likes his mad scrambling or not.

"He hasn't said anything about it, but I know it drives him crazy," Casey said. "Drives a lot of people crazy."

Casey may run the same plays as Thompson, but he's more than willing to deviate from the schemes. Every snap is like an afternoon at the improv.

Against Indiana, his 262 yards passing and running included a whiplash-inducing scramble for a 31-yard TD. Then came the 34-yard adventure at Illinois.

"They can't believe it," he said of his teammates. "They say, `How do you do this? How do you do that?' I just laugh at them and say, `I don't know."'

Casey grew up in Hoboken, N.J., idolizing Randall Cunningham, and he came to Penn State -- passing up a chance to play for baseball's Tampa Bay Devil Rays -- to learn how to be a passer and have a shot at the NFL.

In 1998, Paterno tried the two-quarterback thing, but Casey's playing time quickly dwindled. The prospect of languishing one more discouraging year behind Thompson focused his attention this offseason.

Something else drove him: Tim Couch.

In 1995, Couch and Casey were the two top quarterback recruits. Casey got to thinking when he picked up a Sports Illustrated and saw Couch -- who broke all sorts of records at Kentucky and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft -- on the cover.

"I realized that we came out the same year, and he'd gone to the NFL and I didn't even get my first start," he said. "I didn't think I could let another year go by and me not get a shot or even contribute to anything."

He turned the motivation into a great spring. This time when Paterno said he'd play both, he meant it.

Casey has thrown for 761 yards and six TDs and run for 252 yards and five TDs. Still, he can't shake his reputation as a runner: The yards on the ground have been too memorable. Even his hyper son, Rashard Jr., 2, imitates his father by zigging this way and that, not dropping back.

But Casey has another year to impress the NFL scouts with his arm -- and by then, Thompson will be gone.

"I know, in the back of my mind, next year I have the opportunity to be the starting guy and doing everything I dreamed of doing," he said.