Moments after the final non-conference game of the season, senior fullback Paul Jefferson let reporters in on his two-pronged-plan for success in the Big Ten season.

"We gotta run the football because we can't win games without running the football," he said. "And we can't have turnovers. We can't do it."

While the first component of the plan can seemingly be satisfied due to the emergence of power runner Tony Hunt, it's the second part that has been the issue as of late.

Five Penn State turnovers against Boston College translated into a loss, and, while the team was able to get away with giving up the ball six times against the University of Central Florida last Saturday, that kind of luck will almost assuredly run out during Big Ten season.

"You can't do that against the rest of the teams in the Big Ten," senior quarterback Zack Mills said. "You do that -- six turnovers -- and you're going to get killed."

Mills couldn't have been any more clear -- or correct -- about it. Penn State is currently tied with Michigan State for last in turnover margin in the conference, with negative-1.67 per game. That means that the Lions give their opponents nearly two free chances per game to do what they will with the ball, which is quite a nice setup for opponents.

"You can't do that against Big Ten teams," tackle Andrew Richardson said. "You have to win the turnover battle and most likely you'll be in position to win the game."

While UCF didn't have the type of offense that capitalized on beneficial field position, Big Ten offenses will. Wisconsin will grind away with the run, Purdue will pass like crazy and Ohio State's the kind of team that wins off of its opponent's mistakes. And once conference offenses go wild, Penn State would be hard-pressed to make an offensive comeback against dynamic and feisty defenses.

"The message that has to get across is -- point blank -- we can't have this many mistakes because you get to the Big Ten, they are going to capitalize on them," Jefferson said. "And we're going to be fighting our way out of a hole that's almost impossible to get out of."

When that situation happened at BC, holding onto the football became, as expected, a constant concern in practice the following week. But then came the UCF game, with two interceptions, two botched snaps and two fumbles -- and the team was right back where it started from, no improvements noted.

"I hope most of it is correctable, but we'll have to see," coach Joe Paterno said after the UCF game in his post-game press conference. "I thought we worked awfully hard after last week's game, so to have more turnovers today is a little discouraging."

In the week leading up to tomorrow's game against Wisconsin, turnovers have weighed heavy on the team's collective mind. And while the last report on the team's ability to hold onto the ball was encouraging -- utility player Michael Robinson shared that there were no interceptions or fumbled snaps in practice Monday -- the team still can't help but betray a bit of trepidation on the matter.

"Every week I hope that it's different," Robinson said. "Turnovers are unfortunately something that happens in the game. We're just trying to work on the basics."

If tomorrow it becomes apparent that working on the basics still isn't the answer, the team will have to try to figure out another way. Because, as Paterno said last night on the Nittany Lion Hotline radio show, "if we don't correct this, it's going to be a long year."