It was supposed to be the final game of the strangest regular season.
Go back to 2001 and the Nittany Lions were supposed to end things here, possibly launch themselves to a bowl game in East Lansing, Mich. on Thanksgiving weekend.
But after the 911 terrorist attacks happened the season was pushed back for everyone in the nation.
And, of course, Joe Paterno's Lions then somehow started 0-4, some figuring that they wouldn't win a game all season.
That's when the really weird stuff started happening, much of it pointing to East Lansing.
Just as bad as they were to begin things, the Lions turned it all around just as dramatically by winning four of their next five -- a streak that should have been five-straight if not for coughing up a 14-point lead at Illinois.
That brought things to Michigan State with the Lions' season on the line -- and still one more game to play, the makeup game on Dec. 1 at Virginia.
Lose to the Spartans and bowl dreams and a full recovery would be gone.
And, sure enough, with super frosh quarterback Zack Mills on the bench with a bad ankle, the Lions fell behind by 17 points quickly to MSU.
Enter Mills in a rainy, raw Spartan Stadium. All he did was produce 28-straight points and lead one of the wildest victories in the season, a 42-37 thriller.
Somehow this team had evened its record at 5-5 and seemed squarely set on going to the Alamo Bowl with a victory the following week over the Cavaliers.
We all remember how that worked out, though.
But that Thanksgiving weekend eight years ago, the one with thunderstorms pounding all around on the flight back home?
At least, then, these guys still had one more week to enjoy one of the greatest season turnarounds in school history.