Linemen aren't trying to break his fingers anymore, but there's still a lot of foul play going on in the trenches to keep Jared Odrick under control.

On the fourth play of the Eastern Illinois game, Odrick perfectly timed the snap and stopped Panthers' running back Mon Williams two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

The next play, two linemen took Odrick out of the play by sticking their hands into his facemask.

No flag was thrown, but the pass fell incomplete.

Odrick has demanded double teams for the most of the snaps during the first half of the season. But with only Big Ten foes the rest of the year, starting Saturday against Minnesota, Penn State's defensive tackle still may not catch many breaks from the officials.

At Illinois, Odrick told the official before the game to watch holding. Calls went unnoticed, and Odrick spoke up.

"I said, 'What's up?' " Odrick said. " 'I asked you before the game to watch the holding,' and he goes, 'Well, don't be all-conference.' I laughed at that. He was joking around with me, too. I thought it was kind of funny."

Bill Giovino, Odrick's coach at Lebanon High School, was forced to gameplan around the lack of calls for his dominant lineman.

In Pennsylvania high-school football, players can't block below the waist if you are outside the tackle box. So Odrick lined up at defensive end, and if the opponent ran a play away from him, it did so toward the short side of the field, forcing Lebanon to only defend one-third of the field.

But it didn't always stop them from getting in cheap shots.

"I remember him jumping off the pile, and he was madder than a hornet because of what was happening," Giovino said. "It was one of those you couldn't see. The way he got up. He like jumped out of the pile. He was in the pile and jumped out of it like a mad man."

In high school, Odrick said guys tried twisting his ankle, breaking his fingers and punching him at the bottom of the pile.

Now, players are jumping on him, clipping him in the back and jabbing him on the helmet.

"It happens on a regular basis to be honest with you," said Ollie Ogbu, who plays next to Odrick at defensive tackle. "It happens to the whole defense, so we really can't sit there and complain to the refs. We can only ask them once or twice and after that we gotta continue to play football."

Giovino said defensive linemen perform karate-like drill work, adding swift hand swipes are the only thing Odrick can do to keep guys from tugging his jersey.

It doesn't hurt to call attention to illegal actions, but in a league as physical as the Big Ten, players can't expect officials to cater to them.

"Let's just say, this is the Big Ten," Ogbu said. "If you weren't getting held, and your jersey tossed and face masked, then it wouldn't be a Big Ten game."