The Nittany Lions weren't the only ones who made their presence known at Michigan's Big House on Saturday. The Penn State student section also drew in a lot of attention as they lifted pieces of broken bleachers into the air, proclaiming, "This is our house."

Regardless of the game's outcome, the Michigan crowd also noticed the thousands of faithful fans who made the trip from across the country in RVs or friends' cars, backing up the popular mantra: "Penn State fans ... are better than yours."

"We have the best fans in college football," said Penn State President Graham Spanier at a pep rally held before the game.

A blue and white tent filled with about 1,000 people, who wore their Penn State gear with pride, screamed "WE ARE ... PENN STATE," and meant it.

Gina Veneziano, who graduated last summer, left from Washington, D.C., Thursday so she could show her true school spirit in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"You can't find this from any other school," Veneziano said. "I would come from anywhere to be part of it."

And she's not the only one.

Tom Blaze, Class of 1973, also drove many miles to be part of the festivities. "No matter how much it costs or where [a game like this] is, I'll go. The atmosphere is electric," he said.

Before the game, some students said that besides the fear of losing to Michigan for the seventh time in the last nine years, they were a bit worried about how welcoming Ann Arbor would be.

"I thought I would come back to State College with a black eye," said Rob McHugh (junior-international politics).

Luckily, the home crowd was pretty courteous through the weekend visit, but McHugh said he did encounter some poor attitudes. "Some Michigan students were rude," he said, referring to faulty directions he received while wandering the large campus. "It happened like seven times."

Jay Weinberger (junior-psychology), who also said he was a bit worried at first, quickly changed his mind when he saw the strong showing of Penn Staters walking the streets.

"We weren't a minority by any means," Weinberger said. "We definitely took over the town."

And even though their stadium's capacity exceeds Beaver Stadium's by a few hundred, the Penn State cheering sections were not intimidated by the Michigan-packed crowd, he said.

"We sat with our school friends in the Michigan student section but were being rowdier than they were," said Andrew Savitz (junior-general science), who traveled with Weinberger.

Ultimately, Penn State fans, with pom-poms in hand, watched the last second of the game in disbelief. The Wolverines scored a touchdown to win and triggered a jaw-dropping epidemic.

After the 27-25 heartbreak, Savitz said his faith in the Lions was still intact, but his morale was not. So, he, Weinberger and their fellow road-trippers decided to take the six-and-a-half hour trip to State College at 9 p.m. Saturday instead of Sunday morning.

An ill-fated ending to an action-packed game was not the weekend's only tragic event, Weinberger said, referring to the ride back. "The whole day was a day of seconds," he said. "We got back around 6 a.m. because of another few unfortunate seconds -- a deer walked into the middle of I-80 and met the front of my car. We got towed the last 100 miles back to campus."

Although the conclusion of his trip was not ideal, especially "killing Bambi," Weinberger said that witnessing Penn State pride take over Ann Arbor was well worth the trip.