JoePa

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- The gap is closing.

Another good season next year for Penn State, and another subpar 2007 campaign for Florida State might help Lions' coach Joe Paterno surpass the Seminoles' Bobby Bowden on the career victory list for major college coaches. Paterno is three behind Bowden's 365 wins.

Not that Paterno is counting.

"What does it prove? I feel comfortable with whatever success I have had. I don't have to be the guy that wins the most games," Paterno said this week.

Paterno, 79, has often said he doesn't keep tabs on the litany of records in his coaching resume.
"Honest to goodness, I don't and I don't care," he said. "I just hope the good Lord keeps me healthy enough that I get a couple of good years more under my belt and then I can get out of it and go to work with my grandkids."

Penn State beat Florida State 26-23 in a triple overtime thriller in the Orange Bowl to cap the 2005 campaign.

Neither team had the same success in 2006, though the Lions fared better than the Seminoles. Penn State (8-4) will play No. 17 Tennessee on Jan. 1 at the Outback Bowl.

Florida State (6-6) will try to avoid its first losing season since 1976, Bowden's first in Tallahassee, when it faces UCLA in the Emerald Bowl on Dec. 27.

Bowden and Paterno were part of the same College Football Hall of Fame induction class this year, though JoePa didn't join his colleague in New York for the ceremony earlier this week. Paterno broke his leg and injured his knee when two players barreled into him on the sidelines during a game against Wisconsin on Nov. 4.

Paterno will be formally inducted next year. He fully expects to be coaching for at least a couple more years, too, he said.

"To me, college football and being around kids and trying to make them as good as they can be and having a good competitive football team with the kind of support that we get at this place," Paterno said. "It is an ego trip I am sure. I am sure it is part ego, but it is fun and I am enjoying it."