Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis opened his press conference Tuesday by going over almost every player on Penn State's starting roster.

By name.

With statistics.

Even the bit players of the Nittany Lion offense were part of the discussion.

That left little doubt that Weis and his staff have already, and will continue to prepare thoroughly for Saturday's game against Penn State. The same can be said of Joe Paterno and his coaches.

But the approaches and demeanors of the two head coaches -- both of whom were recipients of different coach of the year awards last season -- are in stark contrast in many areas.

Paterno, for instance, studies film and knows opposing players by number or just position, not by name. Rarely does Paterno know the names of more than a few players on the opposing team.

"A couple of those kids," Paterno said of what challenges his defense will face against Notre Dame's highly-touted offense. "That wideout, whose name I can't pronounce. I'm sure it's not Italian."

Both coaches like to touch back on their roots: Paterno's in Brooklyn, Weis' in New Jersey.

Paterno suggested that reporters on the phone could not hear him at the start of Tuesday's teleconference because of his Brooklyn accent.

Weis, meanwhile, blasted the music of New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi during Notre Dame practices last week in preparation for a boisterous crowd last Saturday at Georgia Tech.

Weis, who has four Super Bowl rings from his days as an assistant with the New York Giants and later the New England Patriots, concedes that he still will never achieve in his coaching career what Paterno has.

Asked if he could imagine himself as the head coach at the same institution for 41 years, Weis responded concisely, without hesitation.

"I'll be dead by then," said the 50-year old coach.

The age disparity between the two coaches certainly contributes to the difference in style, too.

"I can still remember in 1936, something like that, when I was a little kid, listening to Ohio State play Notre Dame," Paterno recalled, going back to a time when the forward pass was just becoming fashionable.

Weis, like most football coaches, has the utmost respect for Paterno and what he has accomplished. In his second season as Notre Dame's head coach, Weis can boast only one 10-win season, while Paterno has accumulated double-digit victory totals 19 times.

As the Irish coaching staff continues to pour over Penn State film this week, familiarizing themselves with player names and the like, it knows that on Saturday there will be a living legend on the other sideline looking for his 20th season of 10 or more wins.

Not bad for a guy that often sticks with just the numbers.

"The guy takes over the job in 1966," Weis explained. "Let's think about what's happened since 1966 just in our history. We're talking about the Vietnam War right through now. Anyone that can go through all that time and deal with all the changes like that and still deal with 18 to 23-year-old young men, we're talking about a special individual.

"And the guy just keeps on winning. That's not an accident, that's by design."