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Look to the seniors, the ones not only in charge of this year's success but also with transitioning a load of younger, talented teammates into the future.
Their careers are winding down quickly, though, and Saturday is their last shot at hated Ohio State.
Their last chance to defeat a ranked team in the regular season. Their last chance to truly prove their own worth to the nation.
So look to senior linebacker Sean Lee.
He was humming along on an All-America career until he ripped up his knee two springs ago, and nothing's been the same. He could only coach on the sideline when the Lions beat the Buckeyes in Columbus last year.
And he could only watch again for three entire games and parts of a few more with another knee injury this fall.
Finally, he is back and healthy.
Look to senior defensive tackle Jared Odrick.
He fights through double-team blocking on most every play of every game, busting his butt at a position that gets little glory.
Odrick wants this game badly. He could only sit and watch with an injury two years ago when the Buckeyes destroyed Penn State's defense in Beaver Stadium, never punting even once.
"Yeah, there's a little extra spark (in practice)," Odrick said. "This is my last shot to go out with a win over (Ohio State), and to do it here at home would be spectacular."
Look to senior Daryll Clark, the quarterback.
He grew up in Ohio and felt shunned by the Buckeyes as a high school recruit. And even when his Lions won in Columbus last year, he wasn't on the field to lead it. He simply stood on the sideline and watched, woozy after suffering a concussion.
For all the good Clark has produced, he still hasn't finished his toughest games as a winner.
"I don't really pay attention to those things," he said. "When you fall into that kind of trap, you're focusing on the wrong things. I haven't done that, and I don't
But he knows. Ohio State on Saturday means a BCS bowl bid is on the line. Bragging rights, too.
He knows about controlling his emotions and keeping himself calm.
"We understand the sense of urgency of the football game," Clark said. "But at the same time, it's another football game. It's going to be a slugfest, and may the best team win. We expect to win."
These type of leaders, along with the home-field crowd, could give Penn State an edge. But the Buckeyes counter with game-changing special teams -- the Lions' biggest weakness -- and with a long-legged colt for a quarterback who has struggled but still possesses immense talent.
Terrelle Pryor is always a threat to run, create havoc and pull out a big play.
"It's not necessarily about keeping Pryor in the pocket, but it's a question of being able to have some kind of control so that we can play some decent defense," Penn State's Joe Paterno said. "Because if you don't do something to at least slow him down, you're never going to be in the ball game."
Pryor, though, is only a true sophomore. He will be back to play Penn State at least one more time, if not two.
The most important players being asked to stop him, they almost certainly will not. Not Odrick or Lee and maybe not even star linebacker Navorro Bowman (leaving early for the NFL?) or senior defensive end Jerome Hayes (would need special NCAA clearance to play another year).
And the most important leader, Clark, will not be back, either.
"He's a great quarterback to have in the huddle," said receiver Derek Moye. "Every time something is on the verge of going wrong, he's there to put everything back on track and make sure it's going right."
And his most important test is nearly upon him, upon all of them.
A victory would go along way to at least making people take notice.
"We definitely feel we have something to prove," Moye said. "There's a whole bunch of talk about how we haven't played anybody yet ...
"We want to show everybody we're ready to play a team like this."
fbodani@ydr.com; 771-2104
TAILGATE TALES
The Ohio State University has a lot of things going for it, like that strange little nut that happens to be its mascot.
The buckeye nut from the buckeye tree was named by Native Americans who figured it looked like the eye of a deer.
And now we have Brutus Buckeye roaming football sidelines and basketball courts and who knows where else, that mascot with an oversized nut for a head.
But that's not really one of the best things going for Ohio State.
We'd rather focus on some recent research done by university folks.
Consider that Buckeye researchers concluded that ice fields atop famed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could be gone within two decades or sooner, the result of global warming.
They also claim volcanoes were a driving force in the deadly ice age 450 million years ago that eventually killed off two-thirds of all species on Earth.
And there's this:
Buckeye scientists are saying that sitting up straight in your chair will give you more confidence.
"Researchers found that people who were told to sit up straight were more likely to believe thoughts they wrote down while in that posture." The slumped-over souls in the study apparently were less likely to believe in their feelings.
But it gets even nuttier.
The co-author of the "sitting up straight" study is named Richard Petty. Though the picture accompanying the article doesn't really look anything like the famous race car driver.
This Petty is a professor of psychology at OSU.
And we have no idea what his thoughts are on NASCAR, nuts that look like the eyes of deer -- or whether he would consider putting on that crazy mascot suit with the giant nut for a head and parading up and down a sideline, even for just a little while.
-- by Frank Bodani
