The thousands of loyal Penn State alumni and fans who traveled across the country to watch their beloved Nittany Lions play in the 95th Rose Bowl enjoyed everything about the trip except the second quarter of the football game.

The gorgeous weather in sunny Southern California—with temperatures in the 70s and skies as blue as the Nittany Lions’ home uniforms—enhanced the receptions, parties and innumerable gatherings of Penn State alumni, as well as provided beach walking and poolside tanning opportunities for the thawed-out travelers from the East.

Appearances by alumni celebrities and former Nittany Lion stars, such as Rosey Grier, John Cappelletti, Don Abbey, Kenny Jackson, Michael Robinson, Matt Rice, Ki-Jana Carter, LaVar Arrington, Tamba Hali and numerous others added to the glitter of Tinseltown.

Regional alumni joined the travelers at a rousing pep rally that filled the Beverly Hills High School football stadium with more than 20,000 blue-and-white fans on Dec. 31 and earned the appreciation of Coach Joe Paterno and his nattily attired players.

The color, spectacle and pageantry of the 120th annual Tournament of Roses Parade—the attraction that makes the Rose Bowl truly unique among all the post-season games—was absolutely magnificent, even as seen through the bleary eyes of Penn Staters who had only a few hours of sleep after welcoming the New Year at Universal Studios.

And when the Blue Band, cheerleaders, majorettes and silks returned from their five-mile parade march down Colorado Avenue to the Alumni Association tailgate in beautiful Arroyo Seco, rimmed by the rugged San Gabriel Mountains, excitement for the Nittany Lions’ third appearance in the “Granddaddy of Them All”® reached a fever pitch.

As for the game, one incurable optimist went so far as to proclaim it to be a tie. He said USC won the second quarter, Penn State won the fourth, while the first and third quarters were even.

The grim reality was that the near-perfect first-half play of Southern Cal, coupled with uncharacteristic mistakes by Penn State, put the game out of reach even for the gutsy Lions, who fought back from a 31-7 halftime deficit to make the final 38-24 score more respectable for the blue-and-white fans among the 93,293 in the sellout crowd and millions watching on the ABC national telecast.

“It would take a heckuva football team to beat Southern Cal the way they played today,” Coach Paterno said in his post-mortem.

Anyone who saw the USC offense awaken to match the play of their No. 1 defense on New Years’ Day could not understand why the Trojans were not playing in the national championship game in Miami next week rather than in their fourth straight backyard Rose Bowl.

In fact, anyone who saw Southern Cal play anywhere outside of Corvallis, Ore., this fall cannot understand why they won’t be wearing the national crown on Jan. 9. The cardinal and gold blazed through an 11-1 regular season, outscoring opponents 450-93, while registering three shutouts and allowing only two teams to score more than 10 points. A six-point sleepwalking loss to an Oregon State team that Penn State beat, 45-14, one game earlier cost the Trojans their No. 1 ranking and a shot at their second national title in the seven consecutive years that they have qualified for a BCS bowl.

After accepting USC’s fourth Rose Bowl trophy in his five appearances there, Coach Pete Carroll said, when asked about not being in the BCS national championship game, “With all due respect to those two teams, I don’t think anybody can beat us. I think we can beat anybody the way we play. We’ve been this way a lot at the end of the season.”

Carroll has basically built a 21st century farm team for the NFL that could beat more pro squads than the Detroit Lions. And a number of Trojans playing Thursday will go through that pipeline next summer.

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, whose sometimes-erratic play prevented the Trojan offense from reaching its full potential in several regular-season contests, played the game of his life and was an easy selection for the MVP award. With the Trojan line giving him plenty of protection, he passed for a career-high 413 yards (second highest in Rose Bowl history) and four touchdowns (most ever against Penn State in a bowl game), shredding the Lion secondary with laser tosses to speedy wide receivers and a massive tight end.

Speedsters Ron Johnson (four catches, 82 yards and two TDs), Patrick Turner (four catches for 74 yards) and Damien Williams, who recorded his first 100-yard game with 10 catches for 162 yards and the game’s first touchdown, burned State’s defensive backs. Tight end Anthony McCoy hauled in five tosses for 48 yards when they were needed to keep drives alive. Tailback C.J. Cable scored on his only reception—a 20-yard screen pass. And Sanchez himself scored on a six-yard quarterback draw.

Penn State’s vaunted pass rush had trouble pressuring Sanchez, sacking him only once, when All-Big Ten linebacker Navorro Bowman got him for a nine-yard loss on a blitz. More often than not, Sanchez capitalized on State’s blitzes by completing short tosses into the vacated area.

Southern Cal’s offensive production against the Nittany Lions’ fifth-ranked defense was aided measurably by Penn State penalties and turnovers. The third least penalized team in the country, State committed nine infractions that cost them 72 yards, while blunting Lion attacks and keeping alive thrusts by the Trojans.

In the first quarter, the Lions stopped a USC drive when All-American defensive end Aaron Maybin stripped the ball from Sanchez and Ollie Ogbu recovered the fumble at the USC-34 to provide a golden opportunity for the Lions. But it was all negated because Maybin had lined up offsides, and the five-yard penalty gave the ball back to the Trojans with a 1st and 5 at midfield. Six plays later, Sanchez gave the Lions a taste of what was to come. He fired a 27-yarder to Damien Williams—who beat safety Anthony Scirrotto on a deep post route—to complete an 86-yard drive for the first points of the afternoon.

Penn State came right back with an 80-yard touchdown drive of its own, despite the nullification of a 45-yard pass from All-Big Ten QB Daryll Clark to wideout Deon Butler by an illegal shift penalty. Tailback Evan Royster rushed for the last seven of his 34 yards on just six carries before leaving with a game-ending knee injury. Freshman Stephfon Green took his place and gained 15 yards on a screen pass, before Butler caught another long one for 28 yards, and Clark covered the final nine on a quarterback draw to pay dirt. And the teams were even at seven.

Then the Lions self-destructed in a disastrous second quarter when they gave up as many points as they did in any entire game all season. Penn State penalties assisted the 24-point Trojan blitzkrieg in the final 13 minutes of the half. Sanchez boosted his NFL stock by completing 14 of 17 passes for 219 yards and two TDs, while running for another. Fourteen of those points came in the last minute and a half before intermission, aided by costly Penn State mistakes.

Whether it was 3rd and 2, 3rd and 13 or 2nd and 14, Sanchez connected with Damien Williams for critical first downs, before firing a rifle shot between two defenders to Johnson for a 19-yard TD with 1:24 left.

On Penn State’s first play after the ensuing kickoff, Clark flipped a screen pass to Green, which he carried for a nifty 30-yard gain, before fumbling the ball to USC on its 42-yard line. A crucial 15-yard facemask penalty on State cornerback A.J. Wallace gave USC the ball on the PS-20 with 42 seconds left, and on the next play Cable weaved through the Lion defense to the end zone, after taking a screen pass from Sanchez. Whereupon, the Trojans gleefully performed an early victory dance on the field and kicked the Penn State logo in the end zone.

The Lions outscored the Trojans, 17-7, in a valiant second-half effort, but the 31-7 hole they had dug for themselves was too deep to climb out of.

Late in a scoreless third quarter, Clark sparked an 80-yard drive by completing a 27-yard toss to Butler, and two plays later, the Lions got 15 more on a personal foul penalty, when USC’s All-American safety Taylor Mays knocked Jordan Norwood silly with a thundering helmet-to-helmet hit. At the outset of the final frame, Green, Dan Lawlor and Clark lugged the pigskin to the USC-2, from where Clark fired a two-yard strike to Derrick Williams for the All-Big Ten performer’s 22nd and final touchdown in a Penn State uniform.

USC answered immediately, as Sanchez passed to wideouts Damien Williams for 15, Turner for 27 and a wide-open Johnson for a 45-yard score.

A 35-yard completion from Clark to Butler and a 26-yard run by Green then set up Kevin Kelly’s 25-yard field goal, which made him the fourth-leading scorer in NCAA history.

The Lions reached the end zone once more, after Derrick Williams jump-started a 53-yard drive with a 14-yard run on a double reverse. Clark passed to tight end Anthony Quarless for 11, and Norwood shook out the cobwebs to come back in the game and grab a 17-yard pass across the middle. Three plays later, Norwood got his Rose Bowl touchdown on a nine-yard pass from Clark.

State’s last two desperation drives ended in interceptions that marred Clark’s fine passing performance of 21 completions in 36 attempts for 273 yards and two TDs. His 273 passing yards and 290 yards of total offense were bowl records for Penn State.

The Lions’ triumvirate of senior receivers closed out their careers with glowing stats. Butler, who caught four passes for a team-leading 97 yards, raised his No. 1 career receptions total to 179 and his No. 2 yardage mark to 2,771. In addition to his 17 yards rushing and 29 yards on kickoff returns, Derrick Williams hauled in four passes for 34 yards and a touchdown to raise his career catches total to 161—good for No. 3 behind Bobby Engram. Norwood grabbed three aerials for 32 yards and a TD to finish No. 4 with 158 career receptions and passed Kenny Jackson and Bryant Johnson to finish No. 3 with 2,015 career yards.

The Lions nearly doubled the average yardage allowed by USC’s top-ranked defense by gaining 410 yards (43 more than any other opponent) and tripled the average number of points it gave up.

And the fans who created a white out in the northwest quadrant enthusiastically supported their team to the bitter end of an 11-2 Big Ten championship season and certain Top 10 national ranking.

For the glory,