| Score by Quarters | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| Penn State | 3 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 31 |
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 14 | 8 | 22 |
| Scoring Summary | ||
| 1st | 10:33 | PSU - Kevin Kelly 32-yard field goal |
| 2nd | 06:56 | PSU - Matt Hahn 0-yard blocked punt return (Kelly kick) |
| 04:13 | PSU - Michael Robinson 33-yard run (Kelly kick) | |
| 3rd | 12:17 | MSU - Jason Teague 25-yard run (Haughey kick) |
| 06:56 | PSU - Deon Butler 3-yard pass from Robinson (Kelly kick) | |
| 01:13 | MSU - Jerramy Scott 4-yard run (Haughey kick) | |
| 4th | 04:58 | PSU - Tony Hunt 1-yard run (Kelly kick) |
| 00:53 | MSU - Kerry Reed 15-yard pass from Stanton (Stanton rush) | |
EAST LANSING, Mich. - All by himself in a crowd, snaking through traffic
as he trotted off the field at Spartan Stadium, Joe Paterno slowed and
waved to Penn State's fans wildly chanting his name and holding signs
for the occasion.
Nittany Lions players weren't so quick to leave. They posed for
group photos and slammed each other around and took it all in. While yesterday's
31-22 victory over Michigan State was no work of art, it made all those
signs in the end zone accurate: WE ARE PENN STATE. BIG TEN CHAMPS.
"From the bottom to the top," said Nittany Lions cornerback
Alan Zemaitis, who helped seal the title with three interceptions.
Standing near his teammate in the end zone, quarterback Michael
Robinson, the likely Big Ten player of the year, said, "Now look
at us. No more 'Joe Must Go' Web sites. I'm so happy for him."
Record books will put Penn State down as cochampion of the Big
Ten with Ohio State. But last month's victory over the Buckeyes means
the Nittany Lions will receive the Big Ten's automatic BCS bowl bid after
finishing the regular season 10-1, and 7-1 in league play.
With the final seconds ticking off, an orange hit the turf near
midfield. The Orange Bowl may be the most likely destination for the Nittany
Lions, although the Fiesta Bowl would presumably love to find some way
to match Penn State up with Notre Dame.
The Rose Bowl, the site of the national title game, also isn't
out of the equation yet, not until Southern Cal and Texas get through
their seasons undefeated.
But last night the celebration was about Penn State's first league
title since 1994, and it continued into Penn State's locker room.
"We almost broke the trophy trying to take a picture with
it," said junior safety Donnie Johnson, who had the key play of the
first half, a blocked punt, recovered by a teammate for a touchdown.
Johnson also finished off the first half with an interception in
the end zone. Four times, Michigan State reached Penn State's 30-yard
line and came away empty. Three times, the Spartans were inside the red
zone and got nothing.
All that was key because Penn State had plenty of dropped passes
and missed tackles of their own. Paterno had kicked his whole team out
of practice on Tuesday after seeing too many of those dropped passes.
Everybody understood the stakes here.
"We felt a little pressure," said defensive end Tamba
Hali. "We knew something was on the line."
"We got a little sloppy," said Paterno, who wore a hooded
overcoat and blew his nose a lot because of a lingering cold. "We
didn't play a real good football game."
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Maybe the difference was Robinson's ability to stay calm and perform under pressure. Penn State's quarterback ran 13 times for 90 yards, leading a rushing attack that also got 89 yards from tailback Tony Hunt, who became the 11th Nittany Lions rusher to go over 1,000 yards. He did so on a 24-yard run during Penn State's last scoring drive.
Robinson's passing statistics don't look particularly gaudy. He completed 10 of 20 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. But the whole package worked yesterday. Robinson's scrambling was key to Penn State's successful third-down conversion on its first drive, finished off by a 32-yard Kevin Kelly field goal. On that third-down play, Robinson moved toward the right sideline, then over to the left hash mark before finding Deon Butler, leading to a 19-yard gain.
Johnson finished off the first half with a goal-line interception, finishing off a big first half for himself. Johnson had that blocked punt with 6:56 left in the half, giving Penn State a 10-0 lead when Matt Hahn recovered at the goal line and went into the end zone. It was Johnson's third career blocked punt - he remembered getting past the same blocker against Michigan State last season.
Getting the ball right back after Michigan State's second straight three-and-out, the Nittany Lions took just 28 seconds to go ahead by 17-0. First, Hunt took a screen pass from Robinson, cut sharply right three times to break open, then spun a couple of times at the end for a 22-yard gain. On the next play, Robinson broke a tackle and left the rest of the Spartans defense behind, scoring from 33 yards out.
Early on, Michigan State was moving when quarterback Drew Stanton, a moving target all day, was intercepted for the first time by Zemaitis at the goal line.
Each quarter could have come with a degree of difficulty because of the wind. The last 28 plays of the first quarter were all in Penn State territory. The Nittany Lions had to start two drives from inside their 5-yard line. They didn't get out to the 20 either time. Errant snaps and shanked punts by Penn State ensured great field position for Michigan State. But the big plays, the turnovers and special teams play, kept being made by the team that got to stick around afterward to celebrate.
"They all wanted to take me out today," a smiling Paterno said of his players, as fans chanted his name some more outside the trailer where he held his postgame news conference. "I said, 'No way, I think I have better people than you to go out with.' "