They heard all the negative comments of how this could be one of the worst Penn State classes in memory, but that has all turned around this season.

This team has seen the lows that Penn State football has to offer in the last two seasons. On the bright side, the possibility of going 9-3 and being in Florida for a New Year's Day bowl game has changed the outlook for the current seniors on the Penn State football team, who have overcome numerous hurdles to get to where they are today.

"Our class is very mature," senior wide receiver Bryant Johnson said. "The maturity played a big factor in our turnaround."

This turnaround comes on the heels of two straight disappointing seasons. Last season's loss to Virginia knocked the Nittany Lions out of bowl consideration and the current senior class found itself at the bottom, staring at a long climb back to the promised land.

Two straight years of being at home watching bowl games was not exactly how this group envisioned Penn State football.

"This is something that's needed and wanted by every senior on the squad," tackle Gus Felder said. "We came into this place and were told, 'go to a bowl game every year guaranteed.' We need to go back and show these guys what it's like."

This senior group is the only current class on the team that has experienced the glory of a collegiate bowl game. They can not wait to get back to one, no matter which bowl committee elects to chose them.

"One of the toughest things about the last two years was being home for the holidays," guard Tyler Lenda said. "I am going to appreciate this trip a lot more."

Assuming the Lions can defeat Michigan State, (which is no sure thing), they will be in line for a prominent bowl, and a return to the national spotlight on New Year's Day, a place they have been far removed from the last two seasons.

It is not just about returning to a bowl game that has kept these players motivated but writing a fitting ending to their football careers here in Happy Valley.

Validating their careers is the only way for this class to go out, although some players have already exceeded their collegiate expectations.

"I expected to come to college and dominant and for the most part I did that," defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy said. "When I signed with Penn State, I knew I was going to come and get knocked down once or twice. I knew I was going to keep getting up and push myself harder and harder. I'm happy with my career."

While Kennedy -- a sure first-round pick in April's NFL draft -- admitted that he is ready to leave, his final game at Beaver Stadium is going to truly test his emotional will power.

"I can't say if I'm going a cry," Kennedy said. "If I do I'm not going to be the one to hide my tears. I'm ready to go but I'm going to miss this place."

Other players are not quite sure if they are ready to leave and enter the real world.

"I think it will be bittersweet in a way," Lenda said. "Penn State football's been my life for five years. It's going to be something tough to get used to."

While Kennedy's four-year career posts some impressive numbers, other players on the team had to wait for their turn in head coach Joe Paterno's lineup. Paterno, who has long been set in his traditional ways, has seen a number of players adapt their philosophies for the good of the team, as Michael Robinson has shown this season.

"I definitely expected to be a playmaker," Johnson said. "It's something I thought about when not having so much success and that helped me turn things around."

Turning around what was once a rapidly sinking ship not used to negative publicity or losing was never looked upon as an easy task.

However, rather than sitting and accepting their faith as a program in decline, with an aging coach, this group of seniors has gone out this season and played harder then they have ever played, because they had a chip on their shoulders.

"They could have packed it in last year at 0-4, but they didn't," Paterno said. "They make you proud to be part of Penn State."

Being part of Penn State was something, which many of these players envisioned in a different light, one, filled with much success.

"Coming in back then, I was just noticing the talent level," Kennedy said. "I knew we had a talented group, I felt that group was capable having success."

Success has not come easy the last few years, but failure is often times more of a motivating factor. In fact, being part of the Blue and White meant not leaving school early (like Jimmy Kennedy could have) or leaving school all together (like Larry Johnson could have). The Lions' elder statesmen knew they had to stay and bond together, if not for their sake for the benefit of the younger guys on the squad.

"We had to provide examples," Bryant Johnson said. "You can't have young guys following you if you're not doing the right thing. We lead by example, and the leaders definitely have people to follow us."

Over the summer, the seniors have been setting the example both on and off the field by using their minds rather than their mouths.

"This team led by example," Kennedy said. "We didn't run off at the mouth. We said, 'We got to do it and lets do it.' "

The team put in countless hours in the weight room and on the practice field to make sure everything would come together this season.

The bonds, which were formed, and the promises that were made to each other show how strong and close-knit this group really is, even when it does not have to be.

"We picked up the conditioning and training," Kennedy said. "Me and Anthony [Adams] don't have to be sitting here now watching film [but we are], preparation is totally different this year."

After all these players have gone through, and everything they envisioned life at Penn State to be, it is finally coming together on the field this season.

The results are astounding, and just one play in each of three games would put this team with a clean record and looking forward to the Fiesta Bowl, but it's tough to complain about the way this season has played out.

"A lot of the young guys have no idea what a bowl feels like. We faintly remember," tackle Matt Schmitt said. "We're going to go down there and have a good time. Hopefully someplace warm."

Going to a bowl game is a goal that every team sets for itself during spring practice, and this season's practice was no different. However, there was something noticeably missing from the team, in a quiet sort of way.

"This team doesn't have any egos," Kennedy said. "The last two years we had some guys with ego problems who didn't want to put the team first and were worrying about themselves and their stats."

This group is not like that, as noticed by the way that Larry Johnson goes about his business, with little complaining about a lack of coverage concerning the Heisman Trophy race.

This group of guys has never been solely about the numbers. They would rather just show up and play the games on Saturday, which is why Paterno has so much respect for them as people, not just football players.

"I horse around and clown around with them," Paterno said. "I don't want to get out of coaching as long as there are people like this around."

It has been a rocky road for this group of seniors over the last four and five years. In all likelihood this was not the way these seniors expected their Penn State careers to play out. When they came here out of high school, they all had their own expectations, and most likely none of them were fully reached.

A bowl game victory in January will ease the pain they have been feeling their whole careers, before they move on for good and say goodbye to Happy Valley.