UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Lydell Sargeant is California dreamin.'

He believes No. 7 Penn State will rebound from its first loss of the season and punch its ticket to Pasadena.

To reach the Rose Bowl, the Nittany Lions (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten) must beat Indiana and No. 18 Michigan State to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten title and earn the conference's bid for the New Year's Day game.

Sargeant vividly recalls the previous time the Lions had to fight their way back from a stunning last-second loss to Michigan to earn their most recent Bowl Championship Series berth.

"A lot of us played as freshmen on that 2005 team," said Sargeant, a two-year starter at right cornerback who served as a backup wide receiver that season. "We've had a chance to see how the guys got the troops back together, put [the loss] in the past and got ready for the rest of the games for the season.

"I think that was good for us to see that. And we have that same type of senior leadership and experience now to help everybody move on. ... We have no other choice. If we don't, the result will be we will lose the next two games."

In 2005, Penn State won its last five games and beat Florida State, 26-23, in triple-overtime in the Orange Bowl. The Lions finished the year 11-1 and No. 3 in the polls and earned a share of the Big Ten championship.

Coach Joe Paterno, who saw his hopes for a third national championship evaporate in a 24-23 loss to Iowa last weekend, is confident his team will bounce back against the Hoosiers, who are winless in 11 games against the Lions.

"I'm looking forward to getting this thing going again," he said. " We've got to make sure we're ready to play Indiana and not dreaming about other things or moaning about things that might have been.

"The saddest words of all are, 'What might have been,' so I think that we'll be OK. I really do."

Penn State's Rose Bowl appearance was 14 years ago. The Lions beat Oregon, 38-20, to win the Big Ten title and finish 12-0, yet they were ranked No. 2 behind Nebraska in the polls.

A.Q. Shipley, a senior co-captain from Moon High School, said the Lions will be tested the next two weeks.

"We're going to find out what kind of character this team has," Shipley said. "We're going to find out what kind of determination we have the last two weeks."

The Lions hope to use the strong finish in 2005 as motivation. They certainly don't want to finish like they did in 1999.

Penn State also started 9-0 that year, but a last-second loss to Minnesota knocked them from No. 2 in the rankings. It was the first of three consecutive losses. The Lions did rebound to beat Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl to finish 10-3 and No. 11 in the rankings.

"That was a different kind of cast of characters," Paterno said. "We had more superstars. We had the first and second guy drafted [Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington] in the whole [NFL] draft [in 2000]. ... It's hard for me to remember exactly why we weren't able to get that club to regroup and go on and win some games.

"But part of it is personality. The people that played then were used to doing a lot of big-time things and big-time players, and I'm not so sure what happened, whether they got distracted by agents calling and all those kinds of things.... I do know we obviously took a real flop, and we're going to try to prevent that [from happening] again."

NOTE -- Tailback Evan Royster has been selected as one of 10 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award, given to the nation's top running back. Royster has 1,060 yards rushing on 161 carries and 11 touchdowns this season. The winner be will announced live Dec. 11 on the ESPNU College Football Awards.