Joe Paterno's resume includes 388 wins, five undefeated seasons and two national championship teams. Paterno has coached seven college football hall of famers, 76 first-team All-Americans and 230 players who made NFL rosters.

But as decorated as his credentials are, Paterno and the majority of his staff at Penn State lack any NFL coaching experience, a trait that has become rarer by the day in an age of idea-sharing and mind-picking between NFL and college coaches.

"There are people in the NFL that I was very fortunate to be associated with and learn a great deal about football from," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "Without some of those things I'm sure that I would be less equipped for some of the things I'm called upon to do, and they were very beneficial to me."

Groh's words come from a background that includes coaching stints with five different NFL franchises, including the New York Jets, for which he served as head coach in 2000.

From there, Groh moved on to his alma mater, where he has led the Cavaliers for more than eight seasons.

Along the way, Groh has kept in touch with some of his old NFL bosses.

A product of the Bill Parcells coaching tree, Groh said he is still in contact with Parcells and fellow Parcells proteges Bill Belichick and Romeo Crennel, whom will all help Groh solve management issues, plan practices and prepare for common opponents or schemes they once faced together.

"From the outset I tried to maintain conversation and contact with those people to continue to move forward or at least to refresh some ideas," Groh said.

That sentiment is shared by Paterno's opponent today.

Minnesota coach Tim Brewster served as the tight ends coach with the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos after holding the same positions with North Carolina and Texas.

Brewster said he regularly picks the brains of former NFL head coaches Mike Shanahan and Marty Schottenheimer.

"I just think that different ways to teach players -- practice, organization, that type of thing -- utilizing meetings, utilizing walk-throughs, utilizing ways in which you study your opponent, try to create matchups to your advantage by different things," Brewster said.

"I just think from an intellectual standpoint, going to the National Football League was very beneficial for me."

Brewster helped recruit future NFL rookie of the year Vince Young while on the Texas staff and was largely credited for the development of three-time All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates in San Diego.

Such success stories make Brewster more attractive to high school recruits.

"He can sell it two-fold," Sports Illustrated senior college football writer Stewart Mandel said. "Depending on what the kid's interested in, he can tell him, 'I coached in the NFL,' or he can tell him, 'I coached Vince Young, I recruited Vince Young. I worked with [Texas coach] Mack Brown.' "

Mandel pointed to the recent success of the spread offense and Wildcat formation at the college level as a reason for the increased communication between coaches on both levels.

That came to light in 2008, when the Miami Dolphins employed different Wildcat schemes and won the AFC East division title.

"It's always been the other

way around, that the innovations went from the top-down," Mandel said.

Whether more NFL teams conform to the Wildcat and utilize more mobile quarterbacks remains to be seen, but Kenny Jackson thinks the offense is not much more than a gimmick.

Mobile quarterbacks are more susceptible to injury, the former Penn State wide receiver said, so NFL organizations will not be as likely to risk their star players by running them.

"There's too much money in those games for those guys to get hurt," Jackson said. "So if I'm running a business, what am I gonna do? Protect my property. The game's still violent."

Jackson said his experience as a wide receivers coach at his alma mater and later with the Pittsburgh Steelers illustrated the different challenges in coaching at both levels.

Former NFL coaches like Southern California's Pete Carroll and Alabama's Nick Saban, Jackson said, have succeeded at the college level because of their passions for teaching younger kids who must be replaced every four years.

In the NFL, coaches' messages can quickly sound redundant to players who make more money than their bosses.

"Some people don't like puppies, and that's what college kids are: puppies," Jackson said. "When I was with the Steelers, you coached like you were in college, and that's why you won."

Jackson said the two head coaches he worked under, Paterno and Bill Cowher, would be able to transition between levels if they wished to because they could handle the smaller issues that are more common at the college level.

"It's a fine line," Jackson said. "Do you really like young people? Do you like developing kids? Do you enjoy the spats with their girlfriends? Can you handle it when they get caught drunk driving? Pro football is a little different."

At Syracuse, first-year coach Doug Marrone is hoping he can take what he learned from the NFL and apply it to his alma mater.

The former New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator said he would take notes on how other coaches would discipline players and then ask himself how he would handle the situation for a program with his name on it.

"You start looking at all the different policies you've been around and you start really saying, 'Well, is this what I want? Because this is gonna be my program now,' " Marrone said.

"Like I always tell the younger coaches, 'You wanna make sure, don't just do it because someone else did it. Make sure you sit down and think about things, because when it's your name on it, it's important.' "

The name on Penn State's program has been Paterno for the last 44 years.

On Paterno's current staff, only offensive coordinator Galen Hall has any NFL coaching experience, having served as a running backs coach with the Dallas Cowboys in 2002.

Yet Paterno's track record at the college level speaks for itself, and the lack of NFL experience on his staff likely isn't a deterrent in its recruiting efforts.

"I don't think anybody in State College would have any trouble selling NFL credentials to a 17-year-old," ESPN senior college football writer Ivan Maisel said. "They just gotta show him that list of players in the League who wore those snappy uniforms."