It's the elephant in the room few want to speak about, that chilly afternoon in Iowa City less than a year ago.
"I've been able to put it behind me," Jared Odrick said. "I haven't forgotten about it."
Penn State entered Kinnick Stadium last Nov. 8 at 9-0, its meeting with Iowa a mere drive-through on the way to the BCS National Championship game in Miami.
The Nittany Lions had just won at Ohio State for the first time in 30 years, and the expectations had immediately been elevated from a third Big Ten championship to a third national title.
But then the Lions fumbled on the game's first possession. Then Daryll Clark threw an interception in Hawkeye territory with less than four minutes remaining. Then Anthony Scirrotto committed a costly pass interference penalty on a third-and-15 with Iowa back at its own 24 yard-line.
And then, just a dozen plays later, Daniel Murray sealed Penn State's fate with a 31-yard kick through the uprights to spark a frenzy on the field and alter the national title picture.
Goodbye, Miami. Hello, Pasadena, Calif.
"I know what happened last year," Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. "We just didn't make a play on the last drive, and they did."
Despite the tough loss, despite watching his team's national championship hopes go up in flames, Paterno insists payback is not in order Saturday night when his team opens conference play against the Hawkeyes in a primetime, nationally-televised contest.
"I don't like the word you use when you say revenge," Paterno said. "I don't know what revenge has got to do with it in football. It's not like they sneaked up on us and stuck us in the back with a knife or something. They played a good football game and they beat us."
Paterno has been preaching that sentiment all week in practice, Jerome Hayes said.
The defensive end stressed that it's a new season, saying the start of the Big Ten schedule is what has the Lions looking forward to Saturday night.
"I'm sure it's in a couple guys' minds that they did beat us last year in Iowa, but it's a part of the game," Hayes said. "They beat us fair and square. There was no cheating involved, so it's a part of the game."
Iowa's victory over Penn State started a seven-game winning streak for the Hawkeyes. They will carry that with them into Beaver Stadium on Saturday.
Ricky Stanzi said his team's win over the Lions 10 months ago was a good "team win," with Iowa responding to adversity in the form of a nine-point fourth quarter deficit.
It's situations like that one the Hawkeye quarterback will remember the next time his team's win streak is in jeopardy.
"We pretty much stowed that game away. We learned from it, we fixed our mistakes and we moved on," Stanzi said. "But at the same point, you keep those kind of learning experiences in the back of your head for when you get into a tough situation. You know that you have been there before and fought the first time."
Stanzi wasn't the only Hawkeye last season to affect a Penn State team's postseason destiny.
Jake Kelly, a former Hawkeye guard, hit four 3-pointers in two overtime periods to give Iowa's basketball team a 75-67, double-overtime win over Penn State in the regular-season finale.
Kelly's dominance knocked the Lions out from a potential No. 2 seed in the ensuing Big Ten tournament to a No. 6 seed and ultimately damaged their NCAA tournament hopes.
"It's a family around here, every program that plays sports here," Penn State forward Jeff Brooks said. "So we want [the football team] to beat the snot out of Iowa actually. We want them to beat them pretty handily and hopefully they want us to beat them handily when we play them."
For now, the football team is focused on the task at hand.
That means beating Iowa, whatever the motivation may be.
"It's always a game that's in the back of your mind, in the previous year any games that you lose, you don't ever want that to happen," tight end Mickey Shuler said. "So next year it's a new year. Two new teams.We're ready to go out and play our best and we hope they play their best. We're ready to be successful."
That means controlling emotions in the hectic atmosphere and avoiding cheap mistakes like the ones Penn State committed the last time it played Iowa.
Do that, Paterno said, and just maybe the outcome will be different this time around.
"I think this is a very fine Iowa team, extremely well-coached, play with a lot of fire and determination, and we've got to play well," Paterno said. "If we're not ready to play well, then obviously we won't be in it. If we play as well as we can, I'm not even sure we can win then."
