PENN STATE Paterno pleased for trip

After staying home for two years, the Nittany Lions have a bowl date in Orlando.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- While sleet fell outside, Penn State coach Joe Paterno allowed himself a minute to think about Orlando and the Capital One Bowl.
"If you were up here today, you'd know how anxious I am to get out of here," Paterno said Wednesday. "It's freezing rain outside -- I could hardly get out of my car."
Paterno isn't one to take in Disney World and other Orlando-area sites -- he'd probably be mobbed by crowds anyway.
But after two years in which his Nittany Lions missed out on the bowl season, Paterno is looking forward to the Capital One Bowl as a reward for the players, the families and the fans who support the team.
"Really, a bowl game is work for me, but the atmosphere and the parameters are such that I can do the work," Paterno said. "I don't play golf.
"I can't even go to Disney World with the kids. This is not for me, this is for a lot of other people -- it's for the fans, it's for the team -- and all I want to do is make sure we keep some things in perspective."
Florida for the holidays
Paterno said 10th-ranked Penn State, which plays No. 19 Auburn in the New Year's Day game, would leave for Florida a couple days before Christmas and probably spend some time at the beach before going up to Orlando.
Players, coaches and their families would gather on Christmas Eve, with defensive tackle Anthony Adams -- usually Penn State's chief prankster -- dressing up as Santa and giving out gifts to the coaches' kids.
After that, they'll go to Orlando for a few more days of fun before practice begins in earnest.
Paterno said his grandchildren -- he has 11 who are 7 years old or younger -- were excited about Orlando's attractions.
And Auburn athletic director David Housel said Orlando is the perfect setting for that kind of trip.
"If you want to compare it to playing for the national championship, it's not that way," Housel said. "But you want the game to be a reward, you want the trip to be a reward for the players, the coaches, the fans, and without question the Capital One Bowl is America's greatest bowl trip."
Goal is another win
Of course, Paterno also wants to win. That would give the Nittany Lions their first 10-win season since 1999 and most likely their first Top 10 finish since the 1996 season.
"When we get down to the last three or four days, and we realize how good Auburn is, we can put our ears back and go to work," Paterno said.
After losing seasons the last two years -- and constant talk that Paterno had lost his edge and that the Nittany Lions had fallen from the ranks of football's elite -- the players are looking at the Capital One Bowl as the final step in restoring Penn State to what they feel is its rightful place.
Orlando will be fun, quarterback Zack Mills said. But not at the expense of winning.
"We're going down there to put the icing on the cake for our season," Mills said. "We have a job to do."