But a touchdown pass from the true freshman?

Of course, the kid was a high school quarterback, but he's been strictly a receiver since arriving in State College his past summer.

But early in the third quarter today Drake took a pitch right, ran a couple of steps and stopped.

He then looked to the end zone and lofted a nice pass to big tight end Andrew Quarless, who reached up and pulled it down in traffic for the go-ahead, 14-yard TD catch.

That's why Daryll Clark and teammates have been trying to get things going through the air in the first half, which ended at 7-7.

But, meanwhile, tailback Evan Royster has been putting up some good numbers on the ground in limited opportunities.

He carried only eight times in the first half but gained 71 yards with a couple of 20-yard breakaways.

Remember that the Lions have never lost when he's broken the 100-yard mark.

And with 2:10 left before halftime Daryll Clark found a wide-open Andrew Quarless sprinting down the left sideline, hitting him in stride for the 29-yard touchdown.

The Lions got the first lead of the day, 7-0.

The score came one play after the Lions were hit with a false start penalty to sophomore guard DeOn'tae Pannell.

Collin Wagner just missed a 38-yard field goal midway through the second quarter that would have given the Nittany Lions a 3-0 lead.

For the season, Wagner has made only 11-of-17 attempts.

With the Penn State offense unable to sustain anything, Bowman has led the defensive charge to keep things scoreless.

Already, the junior linebacker has three tackles for loss, including a sack that dropped quarterback Kirk Cousins for a key 9-yard loss.

Bowman, expected to leave early for the NFL Draft, also made a nice pass defense play, breaking up a third-down throw.

Starting receiver Chaz Powell, a Susquehannock High grad, suffered a sprained AC joint in his shoulder last week and did not make the trip.

Starting cornerback A.J. Wallace made the trip to East Lansing but did not dress for the game after suffering an apparent concussion against Indiana.

True freshman receiver Curtis Drake expects to replace Powell; freshman Stephon Morris should replace Wallace.

And the most interesting thing so far is the weather. Rarely, have the Nittany Lions seen the sun on their previous eight trips to East Lansing since joining the Big Ten. Often, a bitter wind and some light precipitation accompanies the gray.

But today is beautiful, perfect, whatever bad adjective you find fitting. Sunny skies and temperatures in the low- to mid-50s, at least.

Of course, we're not sure what that means for the Lions, who have always struggled here, no matter of weather. Both teams would like to throw the ball, especially the Spartans. Should be good conditions for that.

The big question could be quarterback Daryll Clark and his offensive line. If the line gives him some time and he doesn't get too ansty and try to do too much, Penn State's offense will be a handful to deal with.

If not? The Lions might not even be in striking distance by the beginning of the fourth quarter. That's how drastically this one could turn.

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.

East Lansing, Michigan.

We do try to make this work, we really do. And so do the folks at the team hotel, a former Sheraton property that is now the Lexington Lansing Hotel by Vantage.

There's a very friendly, outgoing hotel staff. Glass elevators. And the best part? A small INDOOR basketball court that's good enough for games of two-on-two.

Maybe that's enough to save the trip.

The problems?

Lots of vacant strip malls. Not many interesting restaurant choices. No city close enough to escape to, like how Indianapolis makes up for the long, in-the-middle-of-nowhere drive to Bloomington.

Again, we make the best of it.

So on Friday night that meant going to Altu's Ethiopian Cuisine (www.eatataltus.com), located in a poorly-lighted, semi-vacant strip mall.

It featured the typical Ethiopian offerings, meaning spicy and mild stews of chicken and beef and lentils and peas are lumped onto a large spongy flat bread.

You don't use utensils -- everyone at the table breaks off pieces of the flatbread and uses them to scoop up the thick stews.

This was about as exotic as it gets around here.

The night ended, as expected, back at the hotel at Penn State's sports information hospitality suite for nacho chips and cookies and a beer, if you'd like.

And plenty of friendly reporter conversation.

There would still be plenty of time to think over the unpredictable happenings to occur on Saturday afternoon in Spartan Stadium.

And the not-so-pretty happenings on the tiny basketball court in the team hotel a few hours earlier.

Take a look at this Big Ten Network video as Bowman talks about last week's play against the Hoosiers, reflects on Penn State's season and looks ahead to this week's matchup against Michigan State.

This week, Penn State players tell what they like most about Thanksgiving.

Purdue is in the same situation. Despite promising wins against Big Ten foes Ohio State and Michigan, the Boilermakers find themselves out of the postseason.

That doesn't mean that there's nothing to play for this weekend. The Old Oaken Bucket is still up for grabs, and the Hoosiers and Boilermakers can't wait to take the field to fight for it. Purdue won last year's game, 62-10. (The Boilermakers' celebration with the Bucket is at right)

For a look at the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry, check out this story by Associated Press writer Michael Marot.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana's goal was to finish this season in a bowl game. In the Hoosiers' minds, they still can.

On Saturday, Indiana and Purdue will square off for the 85th Old Oaken Bucket -- or in this ever-changing world, what some would dub the first Old Oaken Bucket Bowl.

"This is our bowl game, right here," senior defensive end Jammie Kirlew said Tuesday. "This is our last game, the last time the senior class will play together."

Indiana (4-7, 1-6 Big Ten) watched those hopes vanish with Saturday's loss at Penn State. The Hoosiers have lost four straight and seven of eight since starting 3-0, leaving them two wins short of becoming bowl-eligible with only one game left.

Purdue (4-7, 3-4) also came up short, despite improving in the second half of the season.

The Boilermakers rallied from a 1-5 start to win three of four, including a rare sweep of Ohio State and Michigan, before Saturday's home loss to Michigan State ended their bowl hopes.

Though Purdue's players want to keep the Bucket every bit as much as the Hoosiers want it back in Bloomington, they see this game a little different.

"It's been a great season. A lot of good memories, a lot of ups and downs. I think our football team has made a lot of strides in a good way," Purdue quarterback Joey Elliott said. "The Indiana game is always a big one on our schedule."

Fans will likely be clad in crimson-and-cream or old gold-and-black, much like the split seen throughout the bowl season.

"The IU game this year is like a bowl game in a lot of ways," Boilermakers coach Danny Hope said. "It is our last game of the season, and both teams want to finish the season strong with a win over their archrival and feel good about themselves and the bragging rights and all that stuff is a part of it."

IU athletic director Fred Glass said more than 40,000 tickets have already been sold for Saturday's game and he is expanding the Hoosiers student section from 8,100 to 12,500. Glass said more than 10,000 student tickets have been purchased and he expects the remainder to be sold. If the crowd tops 49,000, it would be larger than the one Indiana played in front of in the 2007 Insight Bowl.

At Indiana, that will have to suffice for now.

"I don't want to call it the biggest game of my life, but it is our bowl game, it is my bowl game," Payton said. "We want to go out on a good note and regardless of how it turns out, I'm going to play my heart out and we want to win this one."

And so the Big Ten rewarded him for his game-changing efforts against Indiana.

Bowman, a junior, made a team-high 12 tackles and returned an interception 73 yards for a touchdown in the 31-20 victory over the Hoosiers. He added two tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup in the superb effort.

His interception return broke a 10-10 tie and ignited a slow-starting Penn State effort.

And so the All-America candidate earned his second Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week award.

His is now second on the team this season with 12 tackles for loss and 74 tackles (8.2 per game.

He survived, but bullets went through his sciatic nerve and almost all of his abdominal organs were damaged. He was left with pain and little movement in his right leg.

Clifton was invited to speak to the players on Wednesday after practice.

"It's amazing, man, what the troops do for us, for the United States of America," Buckeyes QB Terrelle Pryor (right) said. "It's just crazy. We don't realize what we have. Just to hear from the guy tell about how he got shot. He was saying it was like it felt like nothing: 'I got shot here and I got shot here.' He didn't complain. He knew he had his team with him, and he preached on team a lot and it has the same to do with us."

Coach Jim Tressel said it was a learning experience for everyone.

Pryor said he would no longer equate football with war.

"Sometimes when we talk about going to war and stuff like that on a football field, it's a different standpoint for them," he said. "They're going to war and they're either coming back or not. We have another day to fight on a Saturday. We have to realize that and we maybe should stop using that term. We're really not going to war, if you stop to think about what war really is. These guys are putting their lives on the line so we can play this sport."

Tressel said stories like Sgt. Clifton's can change perceptions.

"I feel good this week. Maybe part of it is because it's been a little bit different, we had the opportunity with Veterans Day to kind of step back," he said. "We're talking about losing to Purdue or whatever, and people are saying what if you don't win this game or whatever, OK, there's consequences. And you start talking about people taking X number of bullets in the midsection and the other guy running in and taking the gunfire so he can pull him out. Well, that puts Purdue and Wisconsin and Iowa in a different perspective."