STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Joe Paterno has coached the last four games from the press box because of a sore hip and right leg.

No. 3 Penn State hasn't missed a beat, thanks in large part to a veteran staff of assistant coaches.

The Spread HD offense is scoring more than 42 points a game, more than enough cushion for the typically staunch defense. Paterno's assistants, who together have more than 200 years of coaching experience, have helped keep the team hungry, focused and in the hunt for JoePa's third career national title.

"You know, they know me. They can probably predict if they brought up something exactly how I was going to respond," Paterno said. "We've been around together so long."

Paterno took over as head coach in 1966 after serving as an assistant to Rip Engle. JoePa's 43 seasons at the helm at Penn State are an NCAA record.

Dick Anderson, who coaches interior offensive linemen, has spent 31 seasons under Paterno. Tom Bradley has coached at Penn State for 30 seasons, the last nine as defensive coordinator. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson has been there for 13.

Offensive coordinator Galen Hall only joined Paterno in 2004, though he has 31 years of collegiate coaching experience total, including a head coaching stint at Florida in the 1980s.

A 1963 Penn State graduate, Hall started at quarterback for the Nittany Lions and was recruited by Paterno in high school. Jay Paterno, a 14-year veteran of the staff, was a backup QB at Penn State.

The staff was the target of some angry fans when Penn State was losing earlier this decade.

Lately, everything's been rosy, and JoePa these days rarely lets a session with reporters go by without praising his assistants.

"One thing about Joe, when things are going well, he spreads the credit around," Jay Paterno said. "When things are bad, he's shouldering the blame."

The players, led by a savvy group of seniors, have been buying into the coaches' focus on small details. The coaches appear to be making all the right decisions.

Jay Paterno has done a good job preparing first-year starting quarterback Daryll Clark and keeping backup Pat Devlin ready when needed. Against Ohio State, Devlin came on for Clark and calmly led the Nittany Lions to the game-winning touchdown drive against Ohio State two weeks ago.

Hall and Jay Paterno have opened up the playbook with a bevy of playmakers at their disposal. The offensive line is the Big Ten's best.

The defense is holding opponents to 11 points a game, spearheaded by Johnson's staunch defensive line. Bradley, the energetic coordinator and tireless recruiter, has Penn State perenially among the best units in the country.

"The continuity is great because everybody knows what (Paterno) wants done," Bradley said.

The players appear to be finally over a string of off-field issues that had weighed down the team since the spring of 2007.

Paterno's injury, which has forced him to use a cane the last three weeks, hasn't been a distraction, either. He hurt the hip and right leg in practice before the first week of the season when he tried to demonstrate an onside kick.

Instead of pacing the sideline in his traditional khakis and black sneakers, Paterno has been forced to coach from the press box, peering down at the field through his smoky, thick-rimmed glasses.

Paterno conducts staff meetings through teleconference from home on days when it's too tough to get around. Instead of jogging in between drills at practice, Paterno gets shuttled back and forth on a golf cart.

"Now, I'm not comfortable because I'd love to get out on that field and do a little bit more physically than I'm doing now," Paterno said. "And yet when I say that, I'm probably having more fun with the squad because of the motor scooter. I can run around and I can grab them."

Bradley acts as the de facto head man on the field when Paterno is in the box on game days.

But there's no mistaking who's still in charge, Bradley said.

"The one thing that Joe does which is great, he's dotting the I's and crossing the T's," Bradley said. "Sometimes we get so focused on we're trying to do, you need to have a guy looking at the big picture. 'Did you do this? Did you do that?' He's the checks and balances guy."

The affable Bradley gets so hyped up following games he sometimes gets to the office the next morning at 4 a.m. His name has often been mentioned as a leading internal candidate to take over when Paterno retires.

Paterno is in the last year of his contract, and both he and school president Graham Spanier have said they won't formally address his future until after this season.

But the 2008 campaign may not be the end.

Paterno has talked of late about getting whatever ails him fixed as soon as possible after the season is over so he can get back on the road to recruit. Before the season, Paterno had talked about going at least another couple seasons.

"He's talking two years from now, will we need X number of linemen, and X number in the secondary," Jay Paterno said. "He's still talking about two, three, four years down the road in recruiting meetings."

The Nittany Lions continue to score well academically, with the team's 78 percent graduation rate second only behind Northwestern in the Big Ten and 11 points above the Division I average.

JoePa vows not to let his sore body slow down this promising season in Happy Valley.

"We've got too many people who worked too hard for me to back away," he said. "Our coaches have really worked hard, and we're on the verge of having some success in a lot of areas. I think I have to be involved in, and I want to do it."