Jamelle Cornley admits playing football has been a "thought."

Ever since pint-sized Penn State wideout Jordan Norwood walked on to the Penn State men's basketball team last week, the undersized 6-foot-5, 240-pound sophomore had another chance to look in the mirror.

Maybe he should do the reverse of what Norwood has just done and join the Penn State football team with his prototype defensive end or tight end build.

"Everybody says I've had the body since 9th grade," Cornley said. "After a while, you get tired of hearing about it, but you keep looking at yourself in the mirror and you keep comparing yourself to ... what's the tight end's name? Andrew Quarless ... and then I think, 'Well maybe I could do it.' "

While Cornley has the body, he would be behind on skill and technique. Cornley has only played two games of high school football, because his father, Hank, refused to let Jamelle play football because of a bad knee injury Hank suffered in high school. After Jamelle suffered a groin injury, he was off the football team.

Still, playing football again is a dream he doesn't shy away from talking about.

"I have thought about it ever since I've been here, since the moment I stepped on campus," Cornley said.

And again, he realizes he's probably built more like a football player than Norwood. He is built similarly to NFL tight end Antonio Gates, who also played power forward for Kent State.

By no means does this mean Cornley is about to put the pads on any time soon, even if his friends on the football team have continued to pester him about trying out, including Derrick Williams and defensive tackle Chris Baker.

"Most of them think I should go out," Cornley said. "I'm dedicating myself to basketball 100 percent, and if it happens it happens. I can't guarantee anything, and I don't want to start anything, but it's been a thought. I can't say it hasn't been."

Cornley, again, cautioned that he's not sure if walking on to the football team will ever happen, but if player's insistence on trying out wasn't enough, football coach Joe Paterno might have also confused a shirtless Cornley for a football player last year.

In the summer after his freshman year, the 80-year-old coach was cruising along Pollock Road in his BMW when he passed Cornley on his way to the gym.

"He said, 'Hey,' and I really don't think he knew who I was, I think he might have thought I was a football player," Cornley said. "I talked to him briefly, just real quick, and I think he realized I was a basketball player."

Norwood is on the list of those who are ready to give Cornley the nod on the football eye test.

"Whenever I see him, I always think he could be out there playing football," Norwood said. "Big Ten basketball, you have to be physical, just as far as being aggressive, some of those things translate right over."

No way, no how

Despite Indiana's 14-for-34 performance from beyond the arc on Saturday, Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis is still unwavering in his commitment to his zone defensive scheme, even if they were a little late coming out to guard the deep ball.

Critics believed that if DeChellis had switched to a man-to-man defense he could have stopped the Hoosiers in their penchant for jacking up three-point shots. Maybe the Nittany Lions could have gotten a hand in the face of Indiana's guards.

Point taken, but no dice.

"They hit some open shots, but there were some shots that were tough, deep and were contested," DeChellis said. "So if you are playing man-to-man or if you are playing zone, they are knocking those shots and those shots are going in I don't care who you are."

Benches are warm

As the grind of the Big Ten season continues, the bench players continue to, well, sit on the bench.

Only nine players, on a roster that currently holds 17 players with the addition of Norwood, average double digits in minutes played.

One of those players is freshman David "D.J." Jackson, who is a medical redshirt after suffering a stress fracture in his left femur. Jackson will probably be off the practice court full-time until February.

With less than half of the roster seeing major minutes, DeChellis was asked whether he would like to see more players on the bench step up and play some major minutes.

In a way, yes, as he would like to see sophomore forward Milos Bogetic score his first points of the Big Ten season with the around 15 minutes he plays per game. But to a certain extent, he's receiving mixed reaction to the idea of going outside of the current eight-man rotation.

"I just got yelled at our luncheon because our reserves are playing too much and we are losing all of our leads," he said.