The first clue that Saturday, Nov. 1, 2003 would be unforgettable started with Friday, Oct. 31.

A 76-year-old man, beleaguered by his longtime loyalists for being on the verge of his third losing season in the last four after only one in the previous 34, stood in front of thousands of Penn State pep-rally goers, many of them teary-eyed, waved his blue Penn State blazer and exhorted the crowd...

"We ARE...PENN STATE!!!"

"We ARE...PENN STATE!!!"

It was a throwback to the Notre Dame dorm quadrangle, nights before teams like U.S.C. or Oklahoma invaded, and actor Pat O'Brien, coach Frank Leahy and other Fighting Irish legends tried to wake up the echoes.

For Penn State's 2003 season, this would be a last stand, then. One where salvation could be obtained with an upset of No. 7 Ohio State, which was — and is — still national title eligible.

It was a different atmosphere than in other recent futile Lions seasons. "That crowd," Pittsburgh alumnus Brad Dioguardi insisted, "is going to be a 12th man tomorrow!"

It was warm. It was humid. Try that exacta on a typical Happy Valley November 1 and watch the locals laugh.

But it was 67 degrees with 77 percent humidity at mid-afternoon game time and it would be a day that spawned arguably some of the very most colorful, captivating electronic and print media coverage ever.

What it became was one of the greatest advertisements ever for the college game. Three hours, 13 minutes of hypnotic drama, roller-coaster emotional rides and downright captivating football.

The ultimate outcome — Ohio State 21, Penn State 20 — hinged on enough different fourth quarter developments to merit individual stories on each.

In the very end, it came down to one key play the Buckeyes made — backup quarterback Scott McMullen's five-yard fade-pattern touchdown pass to playmaker Michael Jenkins with 1 minute, 35 seconds left, together with a Mike Nugent conversion — and one the Lions didn't — a fluttering 60-yard field goal attempt by David Kimball that tantalized the Beaver Stadium throng of 108,276 by flirting with the right goalpost before diving just wide right and a yard too low.

"Man," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said, still sighing some 25 minutes afterward, "I'm just glad he got under it."

One guy wondered why Tressel would worry about a nearly unprecedented, school-record attempt, which probably would have earned him a "Hey-YO!!" from ESPN analyst Lee Corso.

"Did you see his kickoffs (all deep, one into the stands)?" Tressel wondered. "I thought for sure if they got the ball across the 50, we were in trouble."

The Buckeyes (8-1 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) and their 6,000 or so fans in the partisan crowd let out a collective exhale and maintain their eligibility for the national title in the don't-ask Bowl Championship Series.

The Nittany Lions (2-7, 0-5) were left with a couple of maddening, baffling questions.

¶ What did we do to keep landing on the wrong side of critical referees' calls? ¶ When do we get a couple of breaks in the end?

Indeed, the Lions had some major debate points about the guys in stripes, particularly in the fourth quarter. On the drive that produced Penn State's final points (after the Bucks had pulled within 17-14 on Jenkins' four-yard touchdown reception from McMullen on their first second half possession), the refs allowed an early hit by Dustin Fox on Michael Kranchick as a Zack Mills pass fell incomplete.

Instead of a first-and-10 at the Bucks' 16, the Lions faced a fourth-and-9 at the 31 and settled for Kimball's 48-yard field goal.

On O.S.U.'s game-winning 72-yard drive, they somehow missed tight end Ben Hartsock's replay-proven drop of a four-yard pass from McMullen on third-and-three, keeping alive the possession.

And finally, the Buckeyes benefited from an mistaken call by side judge Michael Sheahan, a likable Cook County, Ill. politico who somehow allowed the game clock to continue after Kranchick was driven out of bounds by Fox and Will Allen.

Paterno, mindful of the league's zip-it directive aimed directly at him, simply said, "I don't want to get into that stuff...I can think of five things, but the commissioner (Jim Delany) wrote me a letter and told me not to say anything...You saw the replay, you write it."

It had been a day in which perhaps four years of Lions frustration were encased in three hours, 13 minutes of riveting drama.

"This was No. 1," said Mills, asked if this was his most frustrating game. "I'm beat."

But Mills was no loser Saturday. Nor really were the Lions. They simply got caught up in the type of game that the Tressel editions of the Buckeyes win by instinct.

Scrap the officials' unwitting contributions and focus on Ohio State's ability to rally. They'd scored on a typically-efficient 14-play, 74-yard drive capped by Lydell Ross's one-yard unimpeded step into the end zone.

And starting quarterback Craig Krenzel, a junior, seemed destined to guide the Bucks to a tough-but-efficent victory.

"It's big to come into Happy Valley and win a game, because we know they're very tough here," said McMullen, who didn't envision Penn State outside linebacker (and Warren, Ohio native) Deryck Toles smashing into Krenzel late in the second quarter and creating a whole new game atmosphere, forcing K out and the O.S.U. offense to change gears.

The staff will breathlessly await Tuesday's medical reports. "I don't know; we'll make that Tuesday's drama," Tressel deadpanned.

"You knew this was going to be a knock-down, drag-out game. Penn State has pride in who they are and in the last four games, they were not beaten so much as they made very costly mistakes."

The Lions fed off the crowd, which was in their corner from the opening kickoff, and under Mills' guidance, matched the Bucks' early energy with a tying 80-yard march climaxed by a two-yard Mills-to-Sean McHugh touchdown pass. And when Krenzel hung a third-and-two high-and-away slider toward Jenkins, cornerback Alan Zemaitis didn't miss it. It wound up, to complete a baseball metaphor, a gopher ball. Zemaitis easily picked it off and returned it 78 yards, hip-faking Krenzel to the ground at the O.S.U. 35 and putting the Lions up 14-7.

A Kimball field goal near the end of the half created the improbable 17-7 deficit and with Krenzel out, McMullen knew the season rested on his shoulders.

"An ABC guy asked me on the way back out what we had to do to limit (McMullen's potential difficulties) and I said, 'Nothing.' "

The kid from the small college town of Granville, about 30 miles east of Columbus loomed large and in charge as he drove the Bucks 80 yards in 12 plays to pull within 17-14, climaxing with a 4-yard scoring pass to Jenkins.

While Mills was restoring memories of the brilliantly promising freshman of 2001, completing 17-of-29 passes for 147 yards, McMullen went 12-17 for 112 second-half yards and the two Jenkins TDs.

"Craig got banged," Tressel said. "The medical evaluation will come; right now, I'm kind of at a loss for words."

It was a game that could require a tome to explain. But McMullen had little difficulty summing up his role with his typical punch: "Sure, I was relishing the chance. I'm always ready, you have to be.

"When you're in there, in the midst of the game, you don't ask, 'Can I see the x-rays?' "

He kept the Buckeyes loose, much as Tressel had all week in practice. Even down 20-14 on Kimball's last field goal, with the massive gathering reaching near Ohio Stadium-level intensity, McMullen kept his cool.

In the final drive, aided obviously by the blown call on Hartsock's dropped pass -- "It happened so fast, I really don't know what happened," he told Bruce Hooley of Cleveland's Plain Dealer. "I ended up with it. I know I bobbled it around. The official made his call, but then I heard the boos. Maybe they had a different view."

Translation: Yeah, sure, I dropped it, but some times you get lucky.

There was nothing lucky about the Bucks' touchdown, though. Going against the teeth of a mean Penn State defense, the Bucks' offensive line protected McMullen with purpose and he hit Santonio Holmes for 20 yards to the Lions' 15, scrambled for five, then connected with Holmes again to the 5.

The crowd was at full banshee scream as McMullen led the Bucks to the line. In trying to match the Bucks' five-receiver sets, Penn State burned a couple of critical times out, another key factor in killing the Lions' frantic final drive.

But McMullen had slowed the game to a waltz pace and somehow had shut 108,000 people out.

He took full advantage of Jenkins' athletic abilities.

"Mike's 6-5," McMullen said. "It was a fade/jump route and the idea is to throw it hard to him. Most of the time, the defensive player (Zemaitis, in this case) doesn't have his eye on him."

Jenkins confirmed a long-standing rumor regarding McMullen's nickname. "We call him the Gunslinger," he said. "We had the ball (4) minutes, next time I looked up we were under two minutes.

"Penn State brought everybody and it was important just to fade (to the right corner) Scotty put the ball where I could get it. To win here at Penn State, that's big, man."

Writers and broadcasters came up with tons of adjectives, kid. But simple as that may be, it might be the best one to describe Ohio State's ability to survive.

With games against never-easy Michigan State and Purdue before the Nov. 22 Ann Arbor Armageddon, the Buckeyes truly hold their B.C.S. future in their own hands.

Simple as that (yeah, right?)