Attention all pretty boys: If you're looking for a football career, cornerback is the position for you.

Don't believe me? You don't have to. It came from straight from the mouth of a D-back himself.

"My position is a pretty boy position," Alan Zemaitis said. "We like to tippy toe around things; we're not supposed to get hit."

The thing is, Zemaitis likes to get hit. And even more so, he likes to hit.

Which is why Zemaitis was thrilled when Penn State vamped up its defensive scheme for the Central Florida game Saturday and finally allowed the Lion defenders to play like the aggressive hitters they fancy themselves to be.

"I just love how our coaching staff was aggressive -- if our general's aggressive, your soldiers are gonna be aggressive," Zemaitis said. "We're always gonna go out and play, but if you're gonna make those kinds of calls on defense and know that we can make it...pshh...that's what we like to do."

Not only is that what they like to do, that's what they need to do, and Saturday proved that definitively. Rather than using the bend-don't-break defense that the team used against Akron and Boston College -- let the opponent make the play but don't let it make a big play -- Penn State implemented a more proactive and aggressive defense that stopped UCF's offense before it could ever really get started.

Linebackers and safeties blitzed the quarterback far more frequently, making it hard for any one of the three UCF quarterbacks to get a throw off. Corners played closer to the line of scrimmage to break up passes before they were caught. And the defensive linemen relished the relieved burden of having to rush the quarterback.

"Before the game, Coach gave us a speech that motivated the players to just have fun out there and go after them," defensive end Matthew Rice said. "And it really worked out well for us."

Apparently so. The defense held, as UCF scored only one touchdown, on a punt return, and made just 11 first downs the whole game. Penn State also put up quite nice defensive statistics -- 10 passes broken up, nine tackles for a loss, two sacks and one interception.

Sure, it was just UCF, who doesn't exactly have the most impressive offense and can't begin to offer what the extremely physical Big Ten opponents will, starting Saturday. But the talent in the Big Ten is exactly why Penn State's defense needs to plan to play as aggressively as it did on Saturday. If power offenses, such as Purdue's pass-happy attack led by super-armed Kyle Orton, can be stopped, or at least slowed, at the source, there's less chance that Penn State's defense will be worn down and allow a steady procession downfield.

As the BC game showed, Penn State can't afford to get in a hole. The Lions' offense can be good, and it can put up points on the board, but it seemingly lacks that dynamic nature that would allow it to easily crawl out of deficits. That fact alone makes it even more important for the defense to attack opponents' offenses so those large deficits never develop.

Fortunately for Penn State, being the attacker suits this defense well, because Zemaitis isn't the only guy who likes to be a soldier.

There's scrappy senior safety Andrew Guman, who has a jolly old time being ferocious.

"Anytime you are playing aggressive, that's fun," he said. "It's fun to see guys getting to the ball tipping balls, making turnovers -- that's fun."

There's a defensive line that Rice characterized simply as "Raw...Aggressive, dominating type of play."

And there's a linebacking corps with warriors like Paul Posluszny and Dan Connor -- clearly the headhunting type.

"That's one thing that other teams I know when they scout us they see," Zemaitis said. "All 11 guys want to make a play, hit somebody."

With these guys around, pretty boys need not apply. Even at cornerback.