It may have kick-started his team's season and it may have turned his program around, but Joe Paterno doesn't want to hear about it.

"I don't know," the Penn State coach said. "That's 100 years ago to me."

It was only four years ago -- Sept. 24, 2005, to be exact -- and it was the last time the Nittany Lions played at Ryan Field, the site of their game Saturday against Northwestern. The last game there featured a blown 16-point Wildcat lead, three lead changes in the final 10 minutes and a last-minute drive that left many to wonder what would have happened to each team had things ended differently.

Trailing 29-27 with less than two minutes to play, Penn State faced a fourth-and-15 from its own 15-yard line. But Michael Robinson hit Isaac Smolko for 20 yards to keep the drive alive.

"Incompletion or whatnot," Daryll Clark remembered, "the game's over.

"A couple of plays later, they sent the all-out blitz, left our guys one-on-one, and threw the ball to Derrick Williams. The rest is history or whatnot."

Williams' 36-yard touchdown grab five plays later gave Penn State the 34-29 win to put it at 4-0 on season.

"Our hearts kind of sunk because we were fighting so hard," Northwestern redshirt senior defensive end Corey Wootton recalled. "They were a tremendous team, but whenever you lose like that it's tough."

For a down Penn State program after four losing seasons in its last five, the game served as a lightning rod to an 11-1 campaign. The Lions have won at least nine games each season since then.

"I remember when we talked about it a couple of years back, [Robinson] would always tell me that everything is not going to go your way," Clark said. "It's all about how you're going to respond to it when those bad things happen."

Dave Eanet, the radio play-by-play announcer of Northwestern football since 1990, was impressed with the way the Wildcats responded after the loss. Still, he can't help but wonder what could have been had things gone differently that afternoon.

Northwestern allowed 773 yards a week earlier in a 52-21 loss at Arizona State and looked to have bounced back against the Lions.

"They seemed to be in control of the game," Eanet said. "They were up by nine points at halftime, led in the fourth quarter, their kicker had a big day. They still thought they'd get out of there with a win."

Although the Wildcats rebounded to win their next three games and eventually make the Sun Bowl, Eanet thinks bigger feats could have been on the horizon for a Wildcat team quarterbacked by four-year starter Brett Basanez. If only it topped Paterno's squad.

"It didn't cost them a bowl game," Eanet said, "but you kind of wonder how their season would have gone had they been able to stop Penn State."

For Eanet, it brought back memories of the schools' Oct. 20, 2001, game in Evanston, Ill.

Penn State quarterback Matt Seneca was knocked out of that contest on his team's final drive, forcing Zack Mills to take over with the Lions down four.

Mills then went 5-for-8, tossing the game-winning touchdown pass to Eric McCoo with 22 seconds left to give Penn State the 38-35 win.

Northwestern went on to lose its final five games and finish 4-7.

The odds are against another dramatic finish Saturday, as the Lions are heavily favored to beat the Wildcats for the 10th time in 13 meetings. Ask Paterno, however, and another nail-biting finish remains a possibility.

"I hope it doesn't come down to the fourth, but it might," Paterno said. "It might come down to we're just trying to hang on for our lives."