For two inextricably intertwined players, tomorrow will be the final collegiate meeting between Zack Mills and Jeff Smoker.

Both quarterbacks in the recruiting class of 2000, Smoker and Mills were two of three signal callers to whom Penn State extended scholarship offers. Zac Wasserman, a strong-armed Californian, was the third.

Of the three prospects, Smoker was perhaps the most highly touted and most coveted. As a prep phenomenon out of Manheim Central High School, Smoker earned consensus All-America honors, throwing for 2,458 yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior. As a three-year starter, Smoker led the Red Barons to a 30-4 record.

Mills had a strong, if somewhat unfamiliar, pedigree as well. As the starter for coach Dave Carruthers at Urbana High School, Mills became the first Maryland public school quarterback to throw for more than 2,000 yards in consecutive seasons while leading the Hawks to Class-AA state titles in 1998 and 1999. The performance earned him PrepStar All-American status and earned him an honorable mention for USA Today's All-America team.

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno tried to bring in both quarterbacks, but also offered Wasserman and, because of scholarship limits, said he would take the first two to commit. On March 30, 1999, Wasserman became the first quarterback of the class to verbal and Mills followed suit a week later.

None of the three had yet begun their senior season of high school.

"They wanted a pretty early commitment and I was still looking," Smoker said. "At that time I wasn't ready to make any type of commitment. I still wanted to look around at other places and they didn't want to wait that long."

Paterno was recruiting Smoker after the Chris Simms debacle had left Penn State without a sure quarterbacking option in two straight years. Simms, son of former New York Giants quarterback Phil, had apparently indicated he play for the Nittany Lions, only to spurn them for the Texas Longhorns.

Without two quarterbacks in the class of 2000, Penn State might be too thin at the position to be competitive.

"The things that we liked about Jeff when he was in high school and we were trying to recruit him were his mobility, his quick release and his competitiveness," Paterno said.

"Jeff is certainly right up there in the top echelon of quarterbacks that I have seen. Maybe it is because I have been pulling for him, but he can do it all. He can run. If you horse around with him, he is going to run. He can throw the ball, pick out wide receivers. They spread everybody out and he is smart enough to identify which kid is going to have the least amount of coverage and does that. I wish we had him."

Smoker eventually decided on Michigan State, where he became the starter in his freshman season and earned honorable-mention freshman All-America status after throwing for 1,365 yards and six touchdowns in six starts.

In Happy Valley, both Mills and Wasserman watched from the sideline as Penn State struggled to a 5-7 mark, losing four of the first five games of the season and missing a bowl game for the first time in 12 years.

Wasserman, however, wouldn't stay with the Lions for long. When he learned that his mother was dying of terminal breast cancer, Wasserman left Penn State after the Blue-White game of his redshirt freshman season of 2001.

That left Mills and Smoker to compete with one another for the Land Grant Trophy, awarded annually to the winner of the Penn State-Michigan State game. So far, the southpaw in State College holds the series lead and the Spartans have lost three-straight games to the Lions since Smoker joined the squad.

As Smoker's senior season draws to a close four years after he and the Lions passed on each other, the Pennsylvania native says there's something special about playing his final home game against his the Lions.

"It makes it a little more interesting," Smoker said. "It's special either way because it's my last game as a Spartan and it's gong to be meaningful. It will make it a little more interesting that we're playing Penn State and I know a lot of guys on the team."

And a lot of guys on the team know Smoker.

That includes Mills who, in the minds of many Penn State fans, will always be linked with his quarterbacking counterpart at Michigan State. Perhaps, tomorrow, the two quarterbacks will provide a battle as well known as the one over recruiting in 2000.