Joe Paterno stands on the threshold of becoming the most decorated college football coach of all time. He's already the only coach ever to lead his team in the Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose Bowls, and has won more bowl games (20) overall than any other coach.

But if Paterno beats Ohio State tomorrow (12:10 p.m., ESPN) at Beaver Stadium, he'll put the final touch on his lengthy résumé — win No. 324. Paterno currently stands tied with Paul "Bear" Bryant with 323 all-time Division I-A coaching victories, tying the Bear last week with a thrilling 38-35 win at Northwestern.

Whether or not the Nittany Lions (1-4, 1-3 Big Ten) can continue their winning ways this week against the Buckeyes (4-2, 2-1) remains to be seen.

"Ohio State is an entirely different team than Northwestern," Paterno said. "Whether we can beat Ohio State or not is very, very debatable."

New head coach Jim Tressel has had a debut season full of ups and downs, but has plenty of weapons on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Steve Bellisari and tailback Jonathan Wells spark the Bucks' offense, while hard-hitting safety Mike Doss leads a defense that is allowing less than 16 points per game, helping Ohio State adjust to life after John Cooper.

"Jim has done a great job there, and not only on the football field," Paterno said. "He has done all of the right things. I don't see much difference. They play good hard-nosed football."

The Lions played hard last week, but also executed a lot better than they had early on in the season. More importantly, they eliminated most of the mistakes that had cost them in the previous games. Not beating themselves is the key to beating the Buckeyes, said Paterno.

"I think we underestimate how hard we played and how well we executed some things earlier in the year, but how dumb we were," he said. "If we have gotten the dumbness out of us and we play as hard, we will be competitive against Ohio State."

Although tomorrow figures to be a very different type of game than last week's shootout in Evanston, the Lions will be bringing something to the field tomorrow that had been missing during the first four games — confidence.

"The confidence of the whole team is up and as we continue to win it's going to go up," said Penn State wide receiver Bryant Johnson. "We found the way Saturday and we want to continue to roll."

You won't hear any Penn State players talking about it, but getting the win for Paterno is on their minds. It won't affect their performance, however, said tailback Eric McCoo.

"The record's just a part of the game," he said. "If we get it, we get it, if we don't, we don't. We definitely care about it and appreciate it, but we're going to play as hard as we can regardless."