ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg

Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald was born on Dec. 2, 1974. Just four days earlier, Joe Paterno completed his ninth regular season at Penn State, as the Nittany Lions pounded Pitt to improve to 9-2. A few weeks after Fitzgerald's birth, Paterno led Penn State to a win against Baylor in the Cotton Bowl, completing his eighth consecutive winning season in Happy Valley. Fitzgerald is nearing his 35th birthday, while Paterno is still going strong at 82. The two men meet Saturday at Ryan Field as No. 12 Penn State visits Northwestern (ESPN, 4:30 p.m. ET). There's a lot of mutual respect between the two coaches, and for Fitzgerald, Saturday's game gives him a chance to go against one of his idols.

	Mark Cunningham/Getty Images
	Pat Fitzgerald is impressed by Penn State coach Joe Paterno's consistency.

Fitzgerald spent some time this week discussing JoePa, his own coaching career and an up-and-down season for Northwestern.

What's it like to be such a young coach going against Joe Paterno?

Pat Fitzgerald: I go back to when I've had the opportunity to listen and learn from him when we get into our meetings. What stands out to me is how coach strongly feels about the student experience and where we're going with college football for our players. He just gets it. He understands what we're all trying to do here. And I think he's got the model program that everyone aspires to have: consistent success on the field, consistent success off the field with helping young men, and then obviously building a program to the heights and levels that they've built it. They've got 93,000 season-ticket holders. So it's impressive to watch.

I know you weren't from his coaching tree, but when you got this job, did you take things from him or try to model yourself after things he did?

Fitzgerald: Well, yeah, the consistency. When he and I visited and I asked him for one piece of advice, he said, 'Just be yourself.' And that's Joe. That's who he is. He's true to who he is. He believes in the philosophies that he's had -- tried, true and tested over time.

When you get in this business, do you think, 'I'd like to be like Joe and coach that long,' or is it unrealistic?

Fitzgerald: Well, you'd like to plan, but planning that far in advance for me would be way too unrealistic. But yeah, he's a great role model for all of us coaches. Every coach would love to say they've been able to have the sustained success on and off the field that he's been able to have. That's a true inspiration to every coach, and it's nothing but impressive.

At those coaches meetings, do you guys spend much time talking about him and his influence?

Fitzgerald: It's more that maybe if we're having a discussion and coach might not be there for a second, we'll say, 'Where do you think Joe would be on this?' Coach is going to speak when he believes in something. He's not just going to give his opinion because of his status, because of his name. What I've seen from him is when he feels strongly about something, he's going to weigh in on it. And if he's not sure, he won't. He knows the power of influence he has over the game. It's the consistency. That's what jumps out to me.

If there's one lesson you've learned from your team this season, what would it be?

Fitzgerald: When you recruit high-character young men, you've got the opportunity to persevere. We've persevered this year. We haven't coached great, we haven't played perfect, but we've persevered and we've stayed the course. I couldn't be more proud of our guys. We've worked 11 months of the year for a month of significance, and that's what every team wants. You want that last month to mean something, and it's right here in front of us.