Milestone and millstone.

But in one of the oddest confluences in college football history, they had become one and the same for Penn State this fall.

If you've been following this dark and dreary Penn State season, you need no further elaboration. Fourteen losses in coach Joe Paterno's last 20 games was the giveaway.

Suffice to say much of the 2001 negatives — the first season-opening four-game losing streak in the Nittany Lions' 115-year history, the first home shutout by an opponent (a 20-0 loss to Michigan) in Joe Paterno's 36 seasons, the first this, the first that...

And of course, the biggest millstone of all was the elusive victory No. 323 that would tie Paterno with Alabama legend Paul "Bear" Bryant as the winningest coach in NC2A Division I-A history.

But this week, despite the swirling negativity at the Unhappiest Valley, had seemed different than the previous four.

"You could tell in practice," said quarterback Matt Senneca, who guided an offense that produced 213 rushing yards, 40 more than the first four games combined. "People were moving around with purpose. The offensive line had a plan..."

The seeds for a 38-35 upset of Northwestern had borne one of the ripest Penn State offensive game plans in recent memory.

Joe Paterno is 74, a statistic his small but growing klatsch of detractors like to use against him. But he knows his history and a reputation as one of the great innovators in college football history.

A Brown graduate with an English degree is credential enough, but he also knows every little twist and turn of his exhilarating 36 years as head of one of America's most visible college football programs.

He once outfoxed Maryland's Jerry Claiborne, who had brought his No. 4 Terrapins into Beaver Stadium in 1974, anticipating a smash-mouth trench battle and instead found himself facing a perfectly-executed version of ... the Delaware Wing-T, which produced over 300 rushing yards against a defense that included Randy White and a 27-3 Lions victory.

This year called for more drastic measures, for Paterno had become a prisoner of his awesome success that has produced wins at a staggering 77%+ rate since he took over in 1966.

And here were the Lions, taking on No. 20 Northwestern (4-1 overall, 2-1 in Big Ten), a cocky and forbidding group that has forced its way into the Big Ten title picture and national polls on an annual basis.

While those among the 108,000 Beaver Stadium regulars choked on their "Joe's Washed Up" psychoanalyses, Paterno did what he often does best.

Once again, he went back to basics. And recalled an 1-3 start in 1970 that threatened to blow his career back to Brooklyn.

"We had a quarterback named (John) Hufnagel," he recalled after his Lions outlasted Northwestern 38-35 in one of the most entertaining Big Ten games in a year filled with last-second heroics.

"He won 17 straight games (with very pedestrian individual talent). We ran the power-I and he won 17 straight with it. Not a lot of defensive reads and good for play-action (passes, Hufnagel's one strength)."

His critics like to say he doesn't relate to today's athlete, that his recruiting suffers for this reason.

But ask backup quarterback Zack Mills, an emergency call-up who replaced starter Matt Senneca and brilliantly completed the game-winning 69-yard touchdown drive by hitting Eric McCoo in the left flat for a 4-yard touchdown with 22 seconds left.

"I learned more from him than anyone," said Mills, a redshirt freshman who occasioned this post-game gem from Paterno, who notoriously hates playing freshman quarterbacks: "My favorite was (John) Sacca," with whom Paterno had an ongoing dialog about life, liberty and the pursuit of playing time. He smiled wanly at the remembrance.

"He was pretty funny during practice, really animated," Mills continued. "He was quoting (ex Penn State All-American and Baltimore Colts All-Pro) Lydell Mitchell, who said to him (desperately trying to convince a skeptical Paterno), 'This is a pretty tough football team.' He made faces...

"He also used (Oakland Raiders Hall-of-Fame tackle) Art Shell where he said 'If the other team bests us, they had to play their (ultimate best) game.'

"What he did was keep us loose and it really helped me keep my poise."

A man of a thousand shticks, Paterno isn't afraid to employ a little "slap-shtick" every now and then.

Surrounded by stadium security after the victory he sprinted madly off the field following an emotional hand-shake with Northwestern coach Randy Walker.

"Don't worry, I'm in shape — I used to be pretty quick," he said, borne out by a little-remembered photo of Paterno as Brooklyn St. Francis Prep quarterback outrunning an obscure cornerback from St. John's Prep for a first down.

A guy named Al McGuire, who made a pretty good living in another sport.

Still, the Wildcats' talented coaching staff had seen enough footage of Penn State runners being dragged down for an average 2 yard gain — one of the nation's lowest — to gain a sense of false security.

An excellent tactician in his fourth year at N.U., Walker didn't think he needed to throw any defensive change-ups into the Penn State game plan.

But he learned the hardest object lesson of all as a result.

"We came the first day after the (Michigan) game," recalled starting quarterback Matt Senneca, who took a vicious-but-clean hit from N.U.'s Napoleon Harris during the Lions' final game-winning drive and was knocked out of the game.

"There was this nice switch to the Power-I," Senneca said, smiling as he knew his Rommel-esque general knew exactly what he was doing. "There was a really nice switch on the offensive line (to good old-fashioned drive-blocking) and I don't think they were ready for it."

A little Anglo-Saxon understatement there. "We had them in long yardages situations," Northwestern linebacker Billy Silva said. "They just nickel-and-dimed us down the field."

It was football's version of the favorite baseball saying, "Hit 'em where they ain't."

For sure, the Lions had to overcome a riveting performance by Notre Dame transfer Zak Kustok, who rushed 21 times for 115 yards and three touchdowns, including an indescribable bob-and-weave thing that threw in a little sprinter's speed, resulting in a 39-gain. It set up N.U.'s final touchdown, a one-yard Kustok dive that gave Northwestern a 35-31 lead with 2:03 left.

But one of the real charms of this game was the re-emergence of all-purpose running back/receiver Eddie Drummond, who could begin to realize all that potential.

"We've been dropping so many passes (including the first four against Michigan Oct. 6)," Paterno said. "Eddie dropped another one today, but we to get him a little more confidence in himself. He needed to be in there."

And Penn State needed him in there. His six-yards-per-carry effort perked up the second-half offense that responded every time Northwestern reseized momentum.

When McCoo caught Mills' flanker screen for the game-winner, the 4,000 or so Penn State fans — a remarkable number given the humility surrounding them — let out a roar that rattled the 'L' tracks a half-mile away.

Naturally, Joe Pa fielded five or six different angles to the "significance" question, always saying he was "happy for the team."

But behind those Coke-bottle glasses were some genuine emotions. One Chicago Sun-Times reporter astutely pointed out there were elements of red surrounding his eyes.

And indeed, every player had congratulated him and awarded him the game ball. But Joe Paterno's sense of humor, a lighthouse in this stormy season in State College, also shone.

"I'll probably get in trouble for saying this," he said, smiling. "But I'll go home, get a good stiff bourbon, sleep a couple of hours, then wake up and watch Ohio State tapes."

One large media member wondered why the players hadn't carried him off, suggesting half-seriously maybe the media could perform the rite.

"Maybe we'll carry YOU off!" Paterno said.

The record still reads 1-4, but that giant cracking sound you may have heard was one huge millstone being tossed off Joe Paterno's back as he finally had formalized his place in the pantheon of college football immortals.