The journey continued to Islip, N.Y., on Long Island; then home to Commack; then across the jammed George Washington Bridge through New Jersey along Interstate 80; then to the Delaware Water Gap and East Stroudsburg, Pa., for a rest stop; then to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to join my son Michael R. Sisak; and then to State College, Pa., where we hit a dead end 1,500 miles later.

Friday night a buoyant Penn State Coach Joe Paterno predicted a victory over Ohio State and he called up the scout team to take a bow for preparing the Nittany Lions on offense and defense.

“What’s a Buckeye?” Paterno shouted sarcastically. A woman he did not see in the upper rafters held up a Buckeye doll.

Saturday he found out what a Buckeye was, is and always will be.

Saturday his team did not show up for the 300th game in Beaver Stadium, where on National College Football Day, the skies were a majestic blue and white, soon to be filled by four stealth fighters flying abreast as a salute to “Veterans’ Day weekend,” as Penn State broadcaster Steve Jones called it. The American Flag was a half-staff in honor of the 13 soldiers slain by a terrorist United States Army major infiltrator at Fort Hood, Texas.

Iowa had been upset by Northwestern, 17-10, setting up a big opportunity for Penn State to share the Big Ten Conference lead, but Paterno said in his postgame interview that he did not know that until the reporters told him.

John Cappelletti, Penn State’s only Heisman Trophy winner in 1972, was on campus celebrating the award’s 75th birthday, commemorated by a special Sports Illustrated issue. Seventy thousand copies were distributed to fans but thousands were left on the seats at game’s end by the frustrated fans.

LaVar Arrington, flanked by Penn State’s top recruits visiting its biggest game of the season, decorated the sideline with his quiet charisma.

“No. 11 has been compared to you but he doesn’t climb on any backs like you used to do,” a collegeBLITZ.com reporter told him.

“That’s all right,” Arrington said of the Penn State linebacker Nate Bowman.

Bowman, told later about the exchange, flashed his only smile of the day.

Arington’s presence recalled his memorable draft day in 2000 when he and Chris Samuels were taken No. 1 and 2 by the Washington Redskins and then helicoptered with owner Dan Snyder to the team’s training center. Samuels retired last week; Arrington retired several years ago and opened a restaurant. Their time with the Redskins was underachieved disappointment. Saturday he was rooting for his protégé Bowman.

And the protégé was on the mark when he said in a postgame interview that Penn State seemed to lack fight against the Buckeyes’ dominating defense. When Ohio State threw the first punch, Penn State did not punch back. At the end the Nittany Lions threw in their Nike gloves.

Only once on 13 possessions was Penn State in the Red Zone. The Nittany Lions punted more times than they had first downs, 10-9. They had only three first downs in the second half, one by penalty. Their running game netted only 76 yards and 2.5 yards a carry to Ohio State’s 228 yards and 4.7 yards a carry. Penn State’s HD Spread became the Analog Spread.

There was no Penn State pass rush and no sacks. The secondary slept on the 62-yard touchdown pass play from Terrelle Pryor to a wide-open DeVier Posey that was the 17-7 dagger with 1 minute 47 seconds left in the third quarter. The one-play “drive” took 9 seconds.

The special teams did not show up. On eight Ohio State punts, Penn State had ZERO return yardage on only one attempted return. On 10 Penn State punts, Ohio State returned 7 for 130 yards. The first punt return was for 55 yards to the Penn State 16, and it put the Nittany Lions in a hole for the entire afternoon. Penn State ran 3 plays for minus 3 yards and then allowed another return of 44 yards to the Penn State 9. Ohio State then took control at 7-0, and Bowman blamed himself for a missed tackle on the return.

The Buckeyes controlled the clock with an 8-minute-4-second advantage in time of possession, including a 12:17 to 2:43 bulge in the fourth quarter alone.

The stands soon began emptying, and by the time Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel led the joyous Buckeyes singing their alma mater in the scarlet and gray section of the stands, the Penn State Blue Band was playing to a virtually empty house.

Tressel and 110,033 others were surprised with 5:56 to play when Penn State, with a 4-and-5 on its 36-yard line conceded the victory by punting. Penn State’s backup quarterback, freshman Kevin Newsome, was so angry, that he had to be restrained by a lineman from going out to replace Clark.

Tressel won the chess match, 24-7, and he relished his triumphant day when he could be heard saying to the other end of his headset after Penn State quarterback Darryl Clark threw an interception with 9:20 to play, “Throw us another one, Darryl.”

Paterno’s analysis was blunt Saturday: “Ohio State played a good football game. We lot licked by them. You hate to lose at home. But they played well. Didn't put the ball on the ground. We kicked the ball 10 times. We punted 10 times. We didn't do a good job. We didn't make a couple first downs so we wouldn't have to kick. I think they beat us just enough up front to control things. Again, the field position was a big thing. They got theirs with the punt return while we were starting way back all the time. We just couldn't make some big plays.”

He said Ohio State played faster and showed more speed, and he was concerned that for the second time in a big game, the Nittany Lions were shut out in the second half as they were by Iowa.

“I think both Iowa and Ohio State played better than we did in the second half,” he said. “Ohio State didn't turn the ball over. Obviously, we did a poor job covering some punts, turned the game around. Iowa blocked a punt, turned the game around, intercepted a pass.

I think we played hard, but the other guys played pretty darn good.”

During the week before the game a T-shirt mocking Pryor’s fumble in last year’s game at Ohio State was unveiled. When Paterno heard about the T-shirt, he ordered it removed from sales. He cautioned the pep rally crowd to be respectful of Pryor. Somehow his defense also got the message and treated Pryor with the courtesy of big gains on two critical third-down plays.

Pryor, heavily recruited by Penn State Defensive Coordinator Tom Bradley, had come back to Pennsylvania (he played in Jeannette) for the first time with Ohio State. During the week, he exchanged Twitter messages with Bradley, who said they would always be friends.

As he walked to the Ohio State bus and greeted fans, carrying his Kentucky Fried chicken box lunch like a football, he was asked if this had been his biggest game ever. “When you win, they are all big games,” he exuded.

Soon the three Ohio State team buses left for the University Park Airport, followed by the 18-wheeler Scarlet and Grey tractor-trailer with a motto on its side: “THE PEOPLE. THE TRADITION. THE EXCELLENCE.” Then the driver blew the air horn to say goodbye to the lingering Ohio State fans.

Paterno should have heard the air horn as an alarm. Remarkably, when asked about the special teams more than 40 hours after the game on Tuesday, he seemed to be wavering under a high punt.

Q. Do you think the process that you're using now (special-teams coaching) is working?

A. I know where you're coming from. No, it's working. We’ve just got to do a little better job, get some better people in there. That's my problem, all right? I've got to make sure we get guys in there that can get the job done. It's not the scheme, it's not the coaching, it's a question of whether I'm giving them enough time or I've emphasized it enough and the whole bit.

Q. At one point you had one guy, seemed like you had the responsibility of special teams as one coach.

A. That's not true. We haven't had that years and years and years, if ever. I can't remember. We've always had one guy coaches this, one guy coaches that (on special teams). Everybody helps out. But we never had (just) a specialty teams coach. Now, your memory plays tricks on you after you've been around as long as I have, but I don't believe that.

Q. Can you just explain the philosophy behind splitting up the special teams coaching? What are some of the benefits to that?

A. Because that's the way I like to do it. We've always done that. I grew up with that when I played in college (Brown University, circa 1946-50). I grew up with it when I came here as an assistant coach. I think if a guy is a linebacker coach, he's got responsibilities there. You know, when they limit you to nine full-time coaches, you’ve got to be careful you don't take one out of the mix and (have him) doing nothing but working with specialty teams. You try to coordinate it so that you do have it. We haven't been bad on special teams through the years. Let's don't get carried away, guys. I'm not about to change. I think we're doing fine. I think the coaches are doing fine. As I mentioned earlier, if there's anything that I would question, it's whether we may not have the best people in there. That partly is because I decided that I didn't want to use some young, good athletes early in the year because I didn't want to just put them on a couple special teams. It had to be my decision, and that's the one I made, and it may not be right.

* * *

Joe, it may not be right. A special-teams coach might have been the path to a better B.C.S. bowl or the national title game, although the Fiesta Bowl vs. Pittsburgh or the Orange vs. Alabama or Florida are still in the mix, as David R. Jones of The Harrisburg Patriot-News reported. But those bowls are looking at the fan base, not the fair catch salutes that seemed as plentiful than Veterans’ Day weekend salutes.