At the beginning, when the success of the 2005 football season was ordained, no one was watching.

The reins were passed to Michael Robinson in the post-game locker room of the 2004 Michigan State game, but that didn't really matter to almost anyone at the time. What Robinson and his cohorts knew, though, was that it was their team, and it was their time.

Derrick Williams had some idea a month later, too, when he called the new leader of Penn State football and told him, "Mike, I'm coming to get you some help." Williams and more help, Justin King, arrived in State College a few weeks later.

Winter workouts for the team started that January, one year ago this week, but no one else knew how things were different. Robinson was preparing as the quarterback and coaching the receivers. When he thought he had practiced enough, or worn out the young guys, they'd call him, wanting to play catch for just a little longer.

No one saw, either, how after practice Robinson and his two roommates, Matthew Rice and Alan Zemaitis, would play host to anyone on the team who wanted to stop by. The trio, out of their home in Nittany Apartments, was raising a family. Starting in May, tri-captains Robinson, Zemaitis and Paul Posluszny assembled the brothers into an army.

In short, while the most fly crew of athletes to roll through Happy Valley this century was prepping for its debut, no one saw just how incredibly amazing its performance could be. Sept. 3, though, and every Saturday thereafter, nearly everyone saw.

This magazine is a look back at the games that made all of college football -- not just Penn State fans -- start to see along with the moments that validated a unit of young men and the program they represent. It starts with the victory over South Florida by an unranked, overlooked team and concludes with a recap of the thrilling triumph over Florida State by a satisfied and vindicated squad.

The stories, photographs and statistics filling these pages aim to capture the reality of what the 2005 football season was -- the public manifestation of the work of elder, resolute teammates who seized control of their team and mandated an electrifying destiny for it. These men, a group of college students on the Penn State campus, mobilized themselves and put into effect a plan that would not only save this season, but also seasons to come.

This fall came from the minds, spirits and bodies of the players, so it never mattered that, in the long preparations, no one was watching.

More than just proving Penn State is back -- or saying "I told you so" -- these teammates restored faith in the way we think life is supposed to go.

A jump "from the bottom to the top," as they have discussed all season, can happen. With hard work, anything is possible. And, as they verbalized following the FedEx Orange Bowl, just when you think you have nothing left, if you believe enough, you can keep going.

In center field of Dolphins Stadium, after 1 a.m. on Jan. 4, these men stood atop a podium, flinging oranges, pounding their chests and embracing. The game against Florida State had been won. The season was over. The story that had begun more than a year ago was now complete.

And, finally, a stadium of fans, a TV audience -- a nation -- was watching.

Sports Editor
jennyv@psu.edu