Joe Paterno showed up early to his weekly press conference yesterday, discussing State College High School football and Monday night's Saints-Falcons game, before getting down to business.

Paterno responded to most questions in a straightforward manner, many of which centered around Penn State's 79-year-old coach taking on the youngest head coach in college football, Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald (31-years-old). Paterno last saw Fitzgerald on the sidelines in 1995 when the coach was a Wildcat linebacker.

When asked just how much has changed since then, Paterno hesitated before stumbling through a long-winded explanation.

"I don't think it's really changed much. I'm struggling to answer that -- but maybe I'm the wrong guy to ask because I'm in it year in and year out," he said. "I don't think it's changed much.

"But that doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about."

Paterno pressed on through the young coach-old coach hype, however, and expressed hope that Anthony Morelli and company would only get better.

But Paterno was adamant there wasn't one specific thing that would change his team's fortune.

"No magic wand then all of a sudden we can do things. We just gotta keep working on it," he said.

The team didn't practice Monday so Paterno was uncertain how Morelli was feeling -- but he was optimistic the junior signal caller wasn't feeling down. After all, Paterno said, his offense performed just as well -- if not better -- than Texas' offense did against the No. 1 Buckeyes two weeks ago.

Paterno also compared Morelli's struggles to Michael Robinson's from last season. Against Northwestern last year, Robinson had three picks and four fumbles (with Penn State recovering three).

Robinson bounced back, of course, and Penn State ended up winning that contest, 34-29. The Nittany Lions haven't exactly lost to creampuffs either.

"I would not take anything away from Ohio State," he said.

Paterno didn't crack many jokes yesterday, as news was broken that long-time acquaintance and former Meyers High School football coach Mickey Gorham had passed away. That coupled with the subject of Randy Walker, who died from a heart attack three months ago.

"[Walker] was very articulate and didn't talk to hear himself talk. When he said something, it was something you wanted to pay attention to," Paterno said. "It was a shame, Mickey Gorham and, now, Randy."