ORLANDO, Fla. -- Five days from now, Sean Lee will pull on his No. 45 jersey for the final time as a Penn State player.

The fifth-year senior co-captain and outside linebacker from Upper St. Clair High School will do so with mixed emotions.

"I've been truly blessed to finish this season out, to have a senior day at Penn State and to be able to play in this bowl game," said Lee, who graduated earlier this month with a degree in finance. "Last year, I felt helpless on the sideline when we were playing against USC in the Rose Bowl.

"The first three years, we had won all the bowl games. So, I'm going to be extremely excited to be out there, trying to help our team win this game and go out on a good note for my career."

Lee, 6 feet 2 and 236 pounds, has been sidelined three times in his career because of knee injuries, yet he has made plenty of big stops and highlight-reel plays in his 33 starts.

He ranks fourth in school history with 319 tackles entering the New Year's Day matchup between No. 11 Penn State (10-2) and No. 13 LSU (9-3) in the Capital One Bowl.

Two of Lee's former teammates, linebackers Dan Connor (419) and Hopewell's Paul Posluszny (372), rank 1-2 in tackles. Greg Buttle is third (343).

"I just want to be remembered as a guy who from the day he got here, has worked extremely hard to try to help this program improve, to win football games and not only improve on the field, but improve off the field," Lee said.

When Lee arrived at Penn State in 2005, the Nittany Lions were coming off their fourth losing season in five years and legendary coach Joe Paterno was being pressured to step down.

In preseason practice as a freshman, Lee partially tore his medial collateral ligament and was sidelined a few weeks. He recovered and played in the final seven games as the Lions finished 11-1 and ranked No. 3 in the country.

Lee played a season-high 49 snaps in Penn State's 26-23 triple-overtime victory against Florida State in the Orange Bowl after Posluszny suffered a knee injury.

"I was expecting to redshirt that year," Lee said. "I ended up becoming a backup, playing some special teams, playing a little more as the year went on and then by the Orange Bowl, in a certain package, I was the only linebacker on the field among a ton of great linebackers.

"As a young guy, seeing that Poz was out, which never happens, to get in there and get a triple-overtime win was unbelievable. So that whole year was great for me."

Lee was named defensive MVP in his latest bowl appearance for the Lions, registering a game-high 14 tackles in the 24-17 victory against Texas A&M in the 2007 Alamo Bowl.

His streak of 26 consecutive starts was snapped in 2008 after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a spring scrimmage, forcing him to sit out the season. Lee missed three games this year with a sprained left knee.

"Sean Lee's had a bumpy road with the injuries," outside linebacker Navorro Bowman said. "But he's a guy that's showed so much resiliency. He wants to be the best and he's never going to give up."

That's a major reason why Lee was a second-team All-Big Ten selection despite starting only seven games. He ranked third on the team with 8.9 tackles per game. He had 80 stops overall, including 10 1/2 for losses, 7 pass breakups, 2 sacks and 1 interception.

"The last four or five games he's been good, which is really good," Paterno said.

Lee is projected as a second-round draft pick as an inside linebacker by NFLDraftScout.com, but he could slip to the third round if a number of underclassmen come out early.

Either way, he hopes to shed his knee brace for good after the game Friday against LSU.

"What I'm expecting out of the knee is that after the season, I won't be wearing a brace," Lee said. "I'll just be rehabbing. I'll be really able to work out full go as if there is really nothing wrong with it."

Ron Musselman's Penn State blog and videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.