Joe Paterno still owns any room he walks into.

The 82-year-old coach proved that once again Monday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency during Day 1 of the annual Big Ten media convention. The Hall of Fame Penn State coach dominated any media session that he was involved in, dropping one-liners and stories with ease. In the process, through no fault of his own, he turned the Nittany Lions' player-representatives into muted bystanders throughout much of the day.

It's got to get pretty lonely when you're sitting in the shadow of college football's all-time winningest coach.

"Yeah man," senior quarterback Daryll Clark said laughing, when I asked if he ever gets lonely sitting up there with his famous coach. "I feel that we can help him out with some of the questions that the [media] asks to him. He's JoePa -- everyone wants to know what's on his mind."

Senior linebacker Sean Lee agreed with Clark, but it sounds like both players wouldn't have it any other way.

"He's such a draw everywhere he goes and not only in State College, but across the nation," Lee said. "You see Coach Paterno -- and he's an icon. I have a great time seeing him answer questions up there, making references to certain things in the 1950s that a lot of us have no clue, necessarily, about. I just think it's great because it shows how long he's been around and how many people he's influenced."

After watching Paterno interact with the media this afternoon, I'm hoping he doesn't call it quits just yet. While it's hard to hear what he has to say sometimes, he isn't afraid to answer some questions, like most coaches are these days.

"He's such an icon, such a legend," Clark said. "He's still young at heart and he still loves the football game and he's in it every step of the way."

"Do you get sick of answering questions about his age?" I asked.

"I really don't get that question asked that much," Clark said. "I get the question, like, 'Why is he still coaching? What motivates him the most?' [I say] the love of football, that's what keeps him going. And he said it best, 'What would I be doing if I wasn't coaching football?' I don't know, Coach."

"What do you think he would be doing?" I asked.

"I don't know," Clark said, trying to figure out the right answer. "Maybe golfing or something like that. I don't know."

"Do you think he could golf?" I asked.

"Uhh, yeah," Clark said. "He talked about golfing a lot. He said ever since he got married, he really stopped playing, but he always talks about playing golf a lot."

Considering Paterno has been married to his wife Sue for well over half a century, my guess is that JoePa hasn't gotten out to the course much lately, and hopefully he won't be anytime soon.

A few more quotes from JoePa:

Paterno, when asked if he had any advice for Iowa's Kirk Ferentz (the second longest tenured coach in the Big 10), if he decided to coach as long as Paterno has: "I'd ask him for advice," Paterno replied. "How do you get a seven-year contract for that kind of money?"

Paterno on what motivates him to still coach: "I get asked that question a lot."

"Did you chuckle when Congress got involved in the BCS stuff?" a reporter asked.

"You're talking to the wrong guy," Paterno said, after chuckling.

Delaney has a way with words: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney sure knows how to avoid answering a question. During his media session today, he was asked if he was concerned with the lack of exposure his league gets late in the year, since they only have 11 teams, not the 12 that is needed to apply for a league championship game. Here's what he said:

"There is a lull there, just like when we didn't have a men's basketball tournament, and others did," Delaney said. "While we did have regular-season play, the attention was in the Big East and the ACC, so I get that, I understand that. Certainly, if you went with expansion and you had two divisions and a championship game, you would fill that vacuum in a marketing and public affairs way, but the reality is, you would not expand just so you could fill that vacuum.

"That would be a positive of the associated expansion, if you thought expansion on its own merits was the right thing to do. But I wouldn't think that you would expand unless you had a whole other series of reasons to do so. I understand that we're out of the mainstream for that week to 10 days, I don't think it's good, but I don't think [the lack of publicity] by itself is the reason why you would go forward."

Huh?

The thing that stood out to me the most is the fact that Delaney says the Big Ten falls out of the mainstream for a week to 10 days. Hey, Jim: Your league is so mediocre right now that it falls off the map for a lot longer than that.

Millen makes appearance: Matt Millen's failure as the Detroit Lions' president has been well documented and most of the criticism he faced was well deserved. Having said that, I still think he will succeed as an analyst this year. He can break down the game better than almost anyone. Case in point: He was asked by a reporter what it's like to be working for ESPN.

"What's it like?" Millen responded. "It's the same thing [as I do at home]. I talk to my kids or my wife about football. I just do it on TV, it's the same thing. They don't listen and neither do [the fans]."

He was kidding, I think. Hopefully, when he speaks, fans will pay more attention than his family does.

Ohio State and Penn State still the conference's marquee game: Clark was asked whether there was a little more emotion invested in the Nittany Lions' rivalry with Top 10 foe Ohio State.

"Oh, absolutely," Clark said. "There's just something about Ohio State. Every time we play 'em, wherever, it's always a tough game. I've always noticed it's been a low-scoring game. Defenses really come out with a plan, sometimes the offense makes a play, and it always comes down to a mishap that happens with either team.

"Obviously, it was [Terrelle] Pryor's fumble last year, and we took full advantage of it. It just always comes down to that. [It] always comes down to ... not just the mistake, but the biggest mistake. [There's] something about Ohio State and Penn State that's been going back for a long time. ... Who knows what's going to happen this year? I feel that we can make another run for the Big Ten title, [I'm] pretty sure they feel the same way, so we'll see what happens."

Line of the day: Millen, after being interviewed by what appeared to be a student television station from Michigan State: "Don't show that in Detroit," he said, after wrapping up the interview. "They'll turn the channel."

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