The Associated Press

COLUMBUS — It was December of 1974 when Jim Tressel, midway through his senior year at Baldwin-Wallace college, hopped into the family car and took a road trip out of Ohio.

He headed for State College, Pa., where he had a job interview with Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. Tressel wanted to be a graduate assistant for the Nittany Lions.

Whether he didn’t get the job or turned it down before it could be offered, Tressel ended up taking a similar position at the University of Akron.

Thirty-five years later, Paterno is still the head coach of the Nittany Lions — with 400 wins and counting — and Tressel is 10 years into a successful tenure at Ohio State. The teams and the coaches will meet again on Saturday.

“I don’t know that I didn’t get the job, and I’m not saying here I was offered the job, but I knew riding home from Penn State I wasn’t going there,” Tressel said on Tuesday.

His father, Lee Tressel, a hall of fame coach at Baldwin-Wallace, had already made a career decision for his son.

“My dad told me I was going to Akron,” Jim Tressel said. “So, now, was I offered the job? Maybe my dad knew I wasn’t (going to get it), I don’t know. But it was the right thing to do because I got more responsibility where I went. It was probably the more glamorous thing to (work for Paterno) because I was all taken with Penn State.”

All this time later, Tressel still doesn’t know exactly how his career took the path it did.

“I don’t know why I didn’t get the job,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “Do you know something? Did Joe tell you?”

This week’s game means so much to No. 8 Ohio State (8-1, 4-1), which is in a deadlock with fellow one-loss teams Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan State in the Big Ten standings, and to Penn State (6-3, 3-2), which has won four of its last five and can inch closer to a quality bowl game.

But the subplots are mostly about the coaches. It pits the two winningest active Division I coaches. Paterno, in his 45th year in Happy Valley, is 400-132-3, while Tressel is 237-79-2 in 25 years (including 15 at Football Championship Subdivision Youngstown State).

The 57-year-old Tressel, who would have to win at his current pace for the next 17-plus years to hit 400 wins, was as surprised as anyone to know he was No. 2 to Paterno.

Asked if that distinction meant anything to him, he said, “It means there’s a huge disparity between one and two. Where did all those guys go in between us?”

Paterno captured his landmark 400th victory on Saturday, leading Penn State back from a 21-0 deficit to beat Northwestern 35-21. After the game, the 83-year-old icon was lifted onto the shoulders of a couple of his brawny linemen.

He took a moment to thank the cheering fans and all of his former players, then added, “People ask why I stayed here so long, I say ’Look around, look around.’ Now that the celebration is over, let’s go beat Ohio State!”

Paterno, who is 8-13 against Ohio State, recognizes that a personal watershed doesn’t compare with the task of knocking off a powerhouse that has won or shared the last five Big Ten titles.

“We’re not going to play against a team that’s as well organized, as well disciplined as this club with the kind of talent it has, it will be a good experience for us,” he said Tuesday. “Whether we can play with them or not, that’s debatable. But I think just getting into a ballgame like that, on the road, the whole bit, will be a good experience. It will help us in the future.”

He added, “It’s going to be tough to stay with these guys. I’m telling you, I’ve stated if not the best, they’re one of the three, four best football teams in the country.”

Tressel was just relieved that Paterno wasn’t entering this week’s game with 399 wins.

“Selfishly, (I was the guy who) let him beat Bear Bryant, if you remember,” he said, referring to Penn State’s 29-27 victory over Ohio State and Tressel in 2001. That was win No. 324 for Paterno, allowing him to pass the Alabama great to become the winningest Division I-A coach.

Tressel didn’t want to add being Paterno’s 400th victim to his resume.

“I’m not sure I would have wanted that double play,” he joked.