Looking back, it was a duel between two soon-to-be-NFLers.

But Penn State's Justin King couldn't catch Indiana's James Hardy. He couldn't out-leap him either as Hardy and the Hoosiers outscored the Nittany Lions in the second half, nearly pulling off the upset last season.

Now, Hardy is with the Buffalo Bills and despite his team's loss, Hoosier receiver Ray Fisher believes Indiana has more than enough weapons to hang with Penn State.

"Losing James, it was pretty hard," Fisher said Tuesday.

"But we got some talented freshmen that came in that can do the same things."

That freshman would be 6-foot-5 Damarlo Belcher. While Fisher leads Indiana with 37 catches, Belcher's addition has allowed the Hoosiers to maintain a sizeable advantage over opposing cornerbacks.

In their faceoff in Bloomington a year ago, Hardy used his 6-foot-5 frame to outmaneuver the 5-foot-11 King to the tune of 14 catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns.

Belcher's height should give him a sizeable advantage over Penn State's Lydell Sargeant and Tony Davis on Saturday. Both Lions stand at 5-foot-10.

Sargeant told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that the Penn State secondary made some small mistakes against Iowa to allow the Hawkeyes to drive the field in the waning seconds to kick the winning field goal. Sargeant said he and his teammates wouldn't make the same errors against Indiana.

"A couple of coverage mistakes. A couple of missed tackles here and there, but things that can be fixed," Sargeant said.

"And things that we looked at on Monday and are looking forward to putting those in the past, and getting ready for this week and fixing those mistakes."

Penn State defensive backs will have to stop an offense that spreads the ball around.

In addition to stopping Belcher, they will also have to contend with juniors Andrew Means and Fisher.

Means leads the Hoosiers with 407 receiving yards and Fisher has four touchdowns.

Penn State will also have to account for who will be throwing the ball to Fisher, Belcher and Means. As of Wednesday, Indiana coach Bill Lynch hadn't decided if Kellen Lewis or Ben Chappell would start against Penn State. Both quarterbacks have battled injury this season.

Lion safety Mark Rubin speculated Tuesday that the loss of Hardy wouldn't affect Indiana's game plan much.

"He was definitely an impact player," Rubin said. "But they have a lot of other talented skill players that can make plays as well."

While the Hoosiers are coming off a 55-20 spanking served by Wisconsin, Fisher said the Lions' loss to Iowa would give them confidence that the Big Ten leaders can be beaten.

"It gives us a lot of motivation," Fisher said. "We stuck with Iowa for a little while and in the second half we kind of burnt out a little bit. We've got a lot of confidence that we can go in and beat them."