At the risk of blasphemously imitating a deity-like figure, picture yourselves as Joe Paterno for a second.

You are 77 years old.

You've coached -- and won -- at Penn State for more than 50 years.

And you've always done things your way.

So, given that, you can see why you would be a little, well, stubborn.

You simply don't like anyone telling you that your way isn't good enough anymore.

And you're proud. Too proud to admit when your program is falling apart.

And for much of last season, that was the Joe Paterno we saw: a frustrated irritable coach watching his team stagger toward a 3-9 record.

It was also the Joe Paterno we saw at the beginning of this season as his team stumbled out of the gates to 2-2 record.

But, for some reason, that Joe Paterno was nowhere to be found after the Nittany Lions 16-7 loss to Minnesota. Nor did it rear its ornery head at his weekly press conference yesterday.

Suddenly, the old coach has become relatively amicable, and, it seems, he has finally accepted his team's situation.

"I was happy with everybody's effort," he said after the Minnesota game. "I told [the players], 'You guys, I don't have to teach you how to fight, now I have to teach you how to win a game.' "

And then yesterday he said: "We are going to make some switches and change some things just to see if we can change the attitude of the team, and give them a little more confidence and re-do some things ... we will come out ready to play a good football game against Purdue. Whether we are good enough is, obviously, debatable."

Quotes like that, I realize, might spell doom in the eyes of many Penn State fans, but they really shouldn't.

People who feel this way are the same people who look through Blue and White tinted Coke-bottle sunglasses, believing the Penn State football program can still be saved.

But truth is, it can not be saved -- simply because it has already crashed and burned. Any rational person knows this. And, it appears, Paterno now knows this.

And since acceptance is said to be the key to solving ones problem, a little bit of honesty from Paterno about where his program stands has to be encouraging.

Because it's time for people to recognize that this program has reached a rebuilding stage.

Yes, that's right, a rebuilding stage. At most Div. I-A schools that would mean an entirely new coaching staff, but not so at Penn State.

While the coaching staff hasn't changed much, considering the woeful results as of late, the Lions are finally undergoing major restructuring from a talent and personnel standpoint. The players are the ones getting shuffled -- as Paterno mentioned yesterday.

And the most noticeable variation in this year's depth chart is the presence of true freshman and other young players -- another sign that Paterno is trying to change his ways.

Then again, he really has no choice. The players who have been here the past three or four years have not gotten the job done, and if you look at the past two weeks, some of the Lions top performers have been freshmen and sophomores.

And this week -- a week in which Paterno will be looking very hard at who should be playing and who shouldn't -- he needs to take it a step farther.

He needs to start true freshman linebacker Dan Connor over Derek Wake. Wake might be a fifth-year senior and the defensive captain, but his back up is out performing him.

Paterno needs to continue getting the ball to true freshman wide out Mark Rubin. Other than Michael Robinson, he's been the only consistent receiver this season.

Paterno needs to look toward the future now, because the future is all this team has. Sad to say, time has run out for the seniors on this team. If they aren't producing now, it's time they take a back seat.

This is what rebuilding is. This is what a 22-26 record over the past five years will do. It isn't pretty, but Penn State football is starting over.

And even a proud, stubborn old coach can, apparently, admit that.