With team dissention rearing its ugly head after a 42-35 loss in overtime on Saturday, the Penn State football team met Monday to iron some things out.

Several players have said that there were chemistry problems on last year's team because of finger-pointing among players.

When defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy's comments about being told to "calm down" by coaches and players appeared in the papers, the coaches took immediate action.

According to center Joe Iorio, who said he hadn't read the article, that was the focal point of the Nittany Lions' weekly team meeting.

"[Penn State football] Coach [Joe] Paterno just addressed it," Iorio said. "Apparently Jimmy Kennedy made a few comments to somebody in the media that said we weren't showing a lot of emotion. Coach Paterno just wanted to let us know that nobody has the right to finger-point if we want to get to the places we want to be. We all have to take responsibility for the wins and the losses."

According to Iorio, Kennedy has not made a statement to the team, and Paterno said he didn't single out his senior defensive tackle.

"I talked to the squad yesterday about what we need to do to get better, but I did not talk to Jimmy directly," Paterno said.

"I don't even know what Jimmy said. A couple people said some things, coaches said, 'Hey Jimmy did this or that.' I don't read that stuff, I really don't. I don't pay attention to it. I was young once, believe it or not."

Iorio said that no players said anything at the meeting, and that he didn't expect anything to come from the comments.

"Things said in the media are not always the most accurate representation of how somebody feels," he said. "I don't think the players will get down on Jimmy Kennedy."

Not pulling in the reins

Despite losing the field-position battle in Saturday's game, Paterno said he would not be restraining his kick returner or his kickoff specialist.

Tailback/kick returner Larry Johnson hurt the Lions' field position with his aggressiveness Saturday. Four of Iowa kicker Nate Kaeding's six kickoffs were just inside the end zone, and Johnson returned every one, never reaching the 20-yard line, where the offense would have been had he knelt for touchbacks.

However, Paterno said it would be worth losing field position to allow Johnson a shot to eventually break one open.

"I think he had a shot at it and he took it out. I'm not about to temper his aggressiveness, if you want to be critical, maybe we didn't block very well," he said.

"I think it's worth a shot, whether you're going to be at the 15 or 16 or on the 20. Larry's got enough confidence in his ability, and we do in his ability that, you know, take it out. If we can get to the 15 great. Who knows? We may break one."

Paterno also said that he wouldn't ask strong-legged kickoff specialist David Kimball to shorten his kickoffs to force other teams to return them. Of his 27 kickoffs, 24 have gone for touchbacks and most of those have gone out of the end zone.

"I'm comfortable when Kimball kicks the ball out of the end zone and they start on the 20," Paterno said.

"I'd rather not take a chance that they'd start on the 15, because you don't know what could happen on the return."

Injury report

Though the broken leg that will sideline hero Calvin Lowry for the season was obviously a huge loss, the Lions got some good news with the possible return of linebacker Tim Johnson. After sitting out the first four games with a back injury, Johnson is practicing and is listed as the second-string middle linebacker this week. Paterno said that he would be battling with junior Andy Ryland, sophomore T.C. Cosby for that job in practice but that the Lions would "give him a shot."

Paterno said that it is doubtful that outside linebacker Deryck Toles would play Saturday because of an ankle injury, and that middle linebacker Sam Ruhe would still not be returning because of his neck injury.