The outcome hinges on a critical fourth-and-short play. If Wisconsin picks up the needed yardage, it has a good chance to pull the game out and end Penn State's dream of an undefeated season. If the Lions hold, they can run out the clock and take another hoped-for step toward the Big Ten Conference championship and a possible berth in the BCS title game. The ball is snapped, sweaty, tired linemen collide, the 236-pound Hill takes the handoff and plows straight ahead, where he . . .

If this situation should arise during Saturday's 8 o'clock game on ESPN, depending upon the outcome, the names of PSU players no longer there are likely to be invoked again.

Defensive tackles Chris Baker and Phil Taylor, dismissed from the team in August by coach Joe Paterno for unspecified violations of team rules, almost certainly would have been on the field in that circumstance. Baker, now starring at Hampton University, was widely regarded as the Lions' best interior defensive lineman by the end of the 2007 season; Taylor, a 340-pound space-eater who spent a lot of time in JoePa's Saint-Bernard-sized doghouse, probably would have been, too, given his penchant for occupying blockers and stuffing the run. But he's now in Waco, Texas, sitting out the year as a transfer to Baylor.

For all the excitement generated by Penn State's 6-0 start, the unspoken fear is that its defensive line, although strengthened by the return of end Maurice Evans and tackle Abe Koroma from three-game suspensions, has been playing with something less than a full deck. In addition to the dismissals of Baker and Taylor, defensive coordinator Tom Bradley and defensive line coach Larry Johnson Jr. lost tackle Devon Still and speed-rushing end Jerome Hayes to season-ending injuries.

That players who were expected to fill lesser roles have stepped is a tribute to them and to their coaches. But now the Lions are in the meatgrinder part of their schedule, where key guys can't expect to sit out long stretches of the second half while backups mop up. Wisconsin is not Coastal Carolina.

If Penn State's defensive line begins to wear down, if fatigue and a shorter rotation cost the Lions a game that otherwise might have been won, many of the questions that were asked a couple of months ago will be asked again:

* Were Baker and Taylor sent packing as a damage-control reaction to an unflattering ESPN "Outside the Lines" segment that portrayed Paterno as an out-of-touch icon overseeing a program that had wandered beyond, in NCAA parlance, "institutional control"?

* Were certain members of Paterno's staff adamant in their belief that Baker and Taylor, despite off-the-field issues, were salvageable as student-athletes at Penn State?

Paterno won't discuss players who have left the program by his choice or theirs. But Jerry Holmes, the first-year coach of the Hampton Pirates, of the historically black Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, doesn't hesitate to point out that Baker has been a major plus for his 4-1 team. Shifted to the outside, the 6-2, 300-pound Baker, a redshirt junior from Windsor, Conn., has a team-leading 3 1/2 sacks.

"We just don't take transfers to be taking them," Holmes said. "I know some coaches up there at Penn State who recommended Chris Baker and gave him a good character reference.

"It was no problem for us to give Chris an opportunity. We have a bunch of different programs in place to help any kid who had been in a bad situation in life, or whatever, to grow a little bit and make better decisions. Since Chris has been here, he's done good things on the football field. We're very happy to have him."

Holmes didn't specify what Penn State coaches recommended Baker, but one likely was Johnson, who recruits in the Virginia/Maryland area. Before he left Happy Valley, Baker said he doesn't "have a relationship" with Paterno, but he regarded Johnson "like a father figure."

Hampton would seem like a good fit for Baker in that it has a history of sending players on to the next level. Seven Pirates began this season on active NFL rosters or on practice squads.

Hampton also has been a favored landing spot for players from big-time programs who have crossed the wrong line once too often. The Pirates' roster includes running back LaMarcus Coker and defensive lineman James Ingram, who left Tennessee under the cloud of failed drug tests and marijuana possession, respectively; defensive tackle Kendrick Ellis (South Carolina, marijuana possession); linebacker J'Courtney Williams (Virginia, credit card theft and fraud), and wide receiver Reggie Dixon (released from his letter-of-intent from Rutgers after he was found guilty in juvenile court of two counts of aggravated sexual assault). *