When Jay-Z was a "hustler now," his "self esteem went through the roof, man, I got my swag."

By the way they've been talking in the weeks leading up to the Blue-White game, the Penn State football team sounds like they've got a certain swagger of their own.

"It's like boxing," defensive end Matthew Rice said. "Can't go into a ring thinking you're the second best. You have to go out on the field and show you are the best, and me saying that isn't boasting at all."

Rice hasn't been the only one doing a little harumphing.

The entire Nittany Lions defense, a defense ranked 10th nationally last year and one that lost only two starters, is talking the "we're-going-to-be-the-best-in-the-nation" kind of talk.

All the returning veterans, including senior safety Chris Harrell who missed the entire 2004 season due to a neck injury, just ooze confidence.

Even cornerback Alan Zemaitis, who stepped into the kiddie pool of NFL Draft testing waters in the offseason, decided to come back for one last blast, not because the water was too cold, but because of what was going on up here.

"The guys we have coming back, the kind of year I know we're going to have," Zemaitis said. "I wasn't ready to leave that."

But this is still a team with a chip on its shoulder the size of 6-foot-5, 324-pound offensive tackle Levi Brown, thanks to another winter break spent in cold State College instead of soaking up football glory somewhere in bowl country.

"We talk about it a lot as a team," outside linebacker Paul Posluszny said. "It really bothers us, the 'What we could've been' and 'What we could've done.' "

The fact of the matter was there wasn't much else the defense could've been, or could've done.

Last year the Lions were the NCAA's No. 5 scoring defense, right behind the likes of Auburn, Virginia Tech, Southern California and Florida State. That's some company.

But Poz and AZ are still hungry.

"I want to play with more of a recklessness, carefree," Zemaitis said. "I want to play with a sense of fearlessness."

Zemaitis' boys on offense have tapped into his contagious confidence, too.

Quarterback Michael Robinson, Zemaitis' roommate along with Rice, is taking the whole senior leadership thing seriously. He wants the ball.

"We don't have to spend as much time worrying about the 'Mike Package,' " Robinson said. "Before it was, 'We got to get Mike the ball at least 20 times for us to win.' Now I'm getting the ball on every snap."

These seniors have encountered the question -- "When will Penn State be Penn State again?" -- their entire careers, and this is the last chance some Lions have to be either a part of the problem or a part of the solution.

For Rice, the team's confidence and tight-knit tone will be the missing link this season.

"It's really one of the best experiences I ever had playing football," Rice said. "The knowledge we all learned ourselves, the situations we've been put in for three years. It all comes out.

"It really has no limits."

Hopefully, like Jay-Z in "December 4th," the Lions aren't just "gettin' ahead of [them]self by the way [they] can rap."