In his Tuesday press conference, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno finally spoke what his actions have showed -- his emotions, for whatever reason, are running extremely high this season.

Uncharacteristic behavior out of Paterno, such as publicly and sometimes physically questioning officials, has many Penn State fans worried that Paterno will end up like coaching great Woody Hayes, who was fired from Ohio State for punching an opposing player.

But Paterno, in keeping with his career trend, has shielded his feelings from the public as well as he can.

Until yesterday, when he admitted that he is more attached to this team than the other 36 he's coached.

"He's been telling us in meetings," quarterback Zack Mills said. "I think he's proud because of what we've come back from. We were 0-4 and that never happened around here. Now, we're a couple plays away from being 7-1."

There is certainly a unique dynamic working within this Penn State football team.

Over 100 young men came to Penn State to work under a coaching legend and now he is singling them out as his favorite group.

"Regardless of how much you might dislike the old guy, he'll grow on you," cornerback Richard Gardner said.

"He tells us to do something and we're going to do it because we believe in him."

Paterno said he feels frustrated for his players because most of them have a limited number of football games left.

And now, at age 75, Paterno can empathize.

"I don't think as a team that we really think about how long he'll be here," Mills said.

"The way he jumps around, he'll be here until he's 85 or 90.

But we don't want to be the team that sent him from the game.

We want to change it around and bring it back to winning 10 games every year."

The continuation of Mills' project is probably contingent on this week and how the team bounces back from its third tough conference loss.

The sophomore quarterback had his worst day as a Lion at the most inopportune time last Saturday.

That night, he didn't sleep much. Around noon on Sunday, he went to the football building to watch the tape.

Other players aren't ready to see what went wrong in Columbus.

"We didn't watch any tape on OSU," Tony Johnson said, referring to all the wide receivers.

"We left that for last Saturday and concentrated on this upcoming week and Illinois."

Paterno continues to draw attention to his team's troubles with the referees and away from its on-field struggles.

He also said Tuesday that he was upset with local media over their coverage.

Across the country, many are calling Paterno a whiner.

His players say he is sticking his neck on the line for their sake.

"He just wants us to worry about football," Mills said.

But what's Paterno worried about?

Possibly death.

"He told me the other day that he was definitely going to heaven," Adams said, "because he's dealt with me for five years."