Paterno admits coaching against Badgers is tough

MADISON, Wis. - There's something about Wisconsin that Nittany Lion coach Joe Paterno just can't solve. He seems to have bad coaching days against the Badgers, and he admits it.

Having lost the two previous meetings under Paterno in 1970 and last year, Penn State broke that losing streak, 23-20, but in a sometimes ugly manner.

"Of course, I didn't help the situation. I didn't do a very good job for our kids today," he said. "They won in spite of me. They hung in there."

In the third quarter, Paterno made a call that he now questions. Leading 20-10 and on the Wisconsin 14-yard line, the Lions had the choice of an almost assured field goal by Brett Conway or an option by ball holder Joe Nastasi. The kicking team came on with the green light to go for the fake if it was there. They went for it.

- Joe Paterno

"Everybody's going to look at it as if, 'It was the wrong call, it was the wrong call,' " Conway said. "But when earlier in the game, when we could have kicked the field goal, that was four-down territory. The way the scores work out, you have to go for another touchdown so the other team doesn't make a touchdown, and then they're up by four."

If he could make the call again, Paterno would change it.

"That's not a good call," he said. "If we score a touchdown on it, it's a great call but we didn't so it's a poor call. We should have got the field goal."

Still up by 10 points in the fourth quarter, Paterno decided to go for some more points. On the Wisconsin 30-yard line, the Lions needed just one yard to keep the drive alive. Lion tailback Curtis Enis couldn't part the Red Sea of Wisconsin defenders on the fourth-and-one play.

"I didn't think that was a bad call," Paterno said. "It's a play we should be able to make a yard and a half, we're in there with two tights. That play I would do exactly the same."

Enis would like the chance to do it all over again, but there's nothing he can do now."Of course anybody would," he said. "But as the old saying goes, 'You can't cry over spilled milk.' "

Despite some of the coaching miscues, Penn State left Madison with a victory, the 700th in Penn State's history. In Paterno's 283 wins, he's learned. He picked up something else Saturday.

"I can't make up my mind whether to kick field goals. We had a fake we missed last year," Paterno said. "I think my days of running fake field goals against Wisconsin are over."