COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About an hour before kickoff, Derrick Williams huddled around a half-dozen players warming up with the special teams return unit.
"This is our year," he said. "This is our time. It doesn't matter who we're playing."
Ohio State was case study No. 9.
A possible Big Ten championship and maybe more crystallized with a 13-6 win over the No. 10 Buckeyes on a crisp Saturday night before a record crowd of 105,711 at Ohio Stadium, the same place the Nittany Lions hadn't won since 1978.
No. 3 Penn State (9-0, 5-0 Big Ten) remained unblemished with reserve quarterback Pat Devlin guiding two fourth-quarter scoring drives in place of the injured Daryll Clark and safety Mark Rubin and linebacker Tyrell Sales combining for a sparkling defensive play.
The joyous reaction on the Horseshoe's turf indicated the significance and magnitude of Penn State's win.
Defensive tackle Jared Odrick and another player chest-bumped at the 50.
A.Q. Shipley and Anthony Scirrotto, both captains, embraced after celebrating with Penn State faithful who traveled.
Williams found Blue Sapphire P.J. Maierhofer waiting in front of the stands at the end of Penn State's pocket of fans and gave her a hug.
They all seemed to realize their biggest hurdle before the BCS national championship game had been cleared.
"I told a lot of the guys in the locker room you don't even know what it means for these seniors," Deon Butler said. "For them it's another year, another couple years. You don't understand until you're a senior that now or never mentality."
Butler and tackle Gerald Cadogan, fifth-year seniors, redshirted on the 2004 team that finished 4-7. Five seasons later, the two are playing on a team that could finish
with the program's first undefeated season since 1994.
"It's a great feeling," Cadogan said. "Freshman year, I think we won what, four games? Now we're beating some of the heaviest people in the Big Ten conference in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio State."
Not without arguably the season's defining moment from Rubin and Sales.
Penn State trailed, 6-3, after Kevin Kelly pushed a 45-yard field goal right. Ohio State faced a third-and-1 at midfield with 11 minutes left when Rubin forced quarterback Terrelle Pryor to fumble.
Sales threw Buckeye running back Beanie Wells to the turf and tapped the ball away from an Ohio State player to set up linebacker Navorro Bowman's recovery on the 38.
"We knew if we didn't capitalize on that turnover, it didn't matter," Rubin said.
Devlin then led a seven-play, 38-yard drive that ended on his own 1-yard plunge for a 10-6 lead and marched the team 45 yards into field goal range to set up Kelly's 35-yarder with 1:07 remaining.
Lydell Sargeant intercepted Pryor on the next series to touch off a celebration at the Horseshoe.
Even with the win, Penn State stayed at No. 3 in the Bowl Championship Series standings as Texas and Alabama maintained the top two spots. The top two teams will play in the national championship game Jan 8. in Miami.
Still, the biggest remaining obstacle preventing the team from playing for its first national championship since 1986 was clear.
"I'm definitely going to watch 'Bama, I'm definitely going to watch Texas," defensive lineman Josh Gaines said. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to watch some of the other teams."
