CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - By the time Penn State's best half ever had concluded last night, the gaps in Memorial Stadium's orange-clad student section were nearly as large as the holes in Illinois' defense.
  "Let's go drink!" chanted the remaining students, their wet wishes fueled by the home team's worse-than-woeful homecoming performance.
  Michael Robinson threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more in less than two quarters of seemingly effortless football as Penn State built a record-setting 56-3 halftime lead and embarrassed rested Illinois, 63-10.
  "You never come into a game thinking it's going to be easy," defensive end Tamba Hali said. "But everything really went our way in this one."
  Bouncing back from an agonizing last-second loss to Michigan, the 12th-ranked Nittany Lions raised their record to 7-1 and remained tied with Wisconsin for first place in the Big Ten at 4-1.
  "We wanted to come back from last week," Robinson said. "We were really excited going into this game. Joe [coach Joe Paterno] had to tell us to calm down a few times."
  With only home games against Wisconsin and Purdue and a season-closing game at erratic Michigan State remaining, it's now possible to envision a once-unthinkable 10-1 record and a major bowl for the Lions, who were 7-16 over the last two seasons.
  Illinois fell to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the conference. In losing its last five, the defenseless Illini, who surrendered a mind-numbing 378 yards in the first half, have been outscored by 230-64.
  "It's depressing and embarrassing to get beat like that," said Steve Weatherford, Illinois' busy punter.
  All those who had predicted a Nittany Lions letdown against the Ilini were themselves let down.
  "I was concerned [about a letdown], but not like you guys," Paterno - who now has 350 career victories, a figure exceeded only by Florida State's Bobby Bowden - told reporters afterward. "I mean, we lose one game and everybody was going to jump off cliffs."
  With Robinson looking more relaxed and confident than at any other time in his four star-crossed seasons, Penn State marched relentlessly up and down the field in putting on a first-half clinic, scoring 56 unanswered points.
  "They didn't go to a traditional coverage after they blitzed," Robinson said, "and our guys were really able to recognize that and get open."
  Six of the Lions' nine touchdowns - all but one in the first half - were Robinson's doing. The senior threw two scoring passes to Deon Butler, whose speedy presence has become even more significant now that fellow freshman Derrick Williams is lost for the season. Ethan Kilmer and Patrick Hall also caught TD passes from Robinson.
  "I didn't really put any extra pressure on myself because Derrick wasn't there," said Butler, who now has six TD catches. "We've got so many good receivers, guys who can get open, that there's