The oldest road warrior himself, Joe Paterno, was pontificating or obfuscating on what it takes to win away from home.

"We've obviously had some problems on the road," admitted JoePa, the Penn State octogenarian, "but we've been beaten by teams that just either were better than we were, were better coached or just played better.

"A road trip is a road trip. Whether it's in the Big Ten or (not) ... if you're good enough, you win. If you're not good enough, you don't win."

During his weekly news conference, Paterno was questioned on whether there were advantages to playing early games on the road as opposed to late ones. "I really wish I could tell you I think about those things," Paterno confided. But he doesn't.

Saturday, nonetheless, the Nittany Lions will play at Purdue. Kickoff will be at 11 a.m. (CDT). On Oct. 11, they will play Wisconsin in Madison. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m (CDT). On Oct. 25, Penn State will have another 7 p.m. (CDT) kickoff at Ohio State.

"I only think about things that I can do something about," Paterno emphasized. "I can't say, 'Well, it's going to be tougher to play on the road this week because it's a night game' ...

"You try to evaluate the football team you're going to play. You try to put together a travel schedule to make it possible for your kids to be mentally and physically ready to play as well as they can. And you go play.

"Sure you'd love to have it where we used to have it -- where every game was a 1:30 game -- and you played that time every week and you got in a regular routine. But that's not the way the game is played today."

Not that Paterno is complaining about night games. Especially since his home venue, Beaver Stadium, can be so electric. "The crowd seems to be a little more enthusiastic when you play later in the day," he conceded.

To his thinking, it still comes down to one thing: focus. "You've got to say, 'Hey, here's what we've got,'" he reiterated. "If you're good enough, you can handle it. If you're not, you make excuses and you don't handle it."

Any chance the Nittany Lions might get caught looking past the Boilermakers? Particularly since their next three opponents are Wisconsin (road), Michigan (home) and Ohio State (road).

"I just say, 'We've got Purdue this week,'" Paterno stressed. "If we don't pay attention to what's right in front of us, then all that stuff down the road (a potential Big Ten and/or national title) isn't going to happen. All you've got to do is point to some of guys that were (supposedly) invincible."

That's a long and growing list, and USC, Georgia and Florida are near the top. "All of a sudden," Paterno noted, "they're not the guys everybody thinks they were two, three, four weeks ago."

Paterno has listed himself as "probable" for Saturday's game. It's probable that he will be on the sidelines despite being hobbled by a bad leg. "I tell the guys on the team there is a difference between being hurt and being injured," he said. "If you're injured, we don't want you to play. But if you're hurt, you better get out there. Right now, I'm hurt."