The dozen or so Penn State football players who showed up for the team's bowl media day Wednesday trudged through the heaps of slush and patches of ice that covered the Beaver Stadium parking lot while freezing rain came down from the sky with almost the same intensity as a summer downpour.

They were among the few students on campus who had to leave the comfort and warmth of their apartments. At 1 p.m.. the same time the Nittany Lions started filtering in, the last classes of the day were ending. The rest were cancelled due to the weather, which was too treacherous to drive through, and gave everyone who was forced to walk through it a miserable experience.

However, as hideous as it was outside, the Lions had one wonderful consolation: On Wednesday, it was 69 degrees in Orlando.

The 9-3 Lions will be traveling to the resort town in Florida in eight days. They will leave after finals to begin preparation for their date with Auburn at 1 p.m. on Jan. 1 in the Capital One Bowl.

"I can't wait to get out of here," said wide receiver Tony Johnson, a State College Area H.S. graduate. "This place is the worst. I hate the cold weather. I'm glad I'm going down to get a tan in Florida."

After spending the last two winter breaks at their respective homes, the lions will be playing in their first bowl game since the 1999 Alamo Bowl, in which they beat Texas A&M 24-0.

Suffering through those two losing seasons, a 5-7 campaign in 2000 and a 5-6 record in 2001, gave the Lions a whole new perspective on what it means to be playing an New Years Day. They plan on making the most of their experience.

"I can't wait," offensive tackle Matt Schmitt said. "A couple of us are going down there to the beach a little bit, enjoy the sun some... The main reason we're going to go down there is to win a game, but we're also going to go down there and we're going to enjoy ourselves, because it is a reward for the past season that we've gone through. It should be a good time"

The last time the Lions were playing in the postseason the smiles on their faces weren't quite as big as they are now. San Antonio wasn't the place the Lions were planning on going in 1999, but after their run at a national championship crumbled with three consecutive losses at the end of the regular season, the Alamo Bowl was their consolation prize. The Lions, told since their individual recruitments that a bowl game every season is basically a guarantee, treated it as such.

"We had a really solemn attitude when we went down for the last bowl game," said center Joe Iorio, a freshman on that team. "We were thinking no less than Rose Bowl and for us to not play in a New Years Day bowl game after going 9-0 and being ranked No. 1, No. 2 in the country was really disappointing."

Now, the seniors and redshirt juniors that went on the last bowl game trip are passing down stories to the younger players. Though some said their trip to Texas was a bit boring, they understand what it means to go to a bowl game even more. Considering the wealth of attractions in Orlando, including Disney World and Universal Studios, they expect to have a better time this year.

"I think we're going to find a restaurant and see how much fun we can have with that," Schmitt said of the offensive line. "We're going to have some fun. When we go to some of the amusement parks, we're going to put a scare into some of those rides. It's going to be a good time."