Poise and discipline -- they're two buzz words that Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has sounded from the pulpit to his players over the years.

It's the importance of maintaining a level head, of not letting the other guy, or emotion, get the best of you.

Well, after two overtime losses in the past three weeks, you have to wonder whether Paterno is practicing what he preaches and what kind of example he's setting for his players.

First, there was the 42-35 loss to Iowa at Beaver Stadium and Paterno's mad sprint and grab of referee Dick Honig's jersey. Regardless of how innocent Paterno's intentions were to stop Honig, it looked bad.

Emotion got the better of him.

Skip forward to Saturday. The Nittany Lions lose a 27-24 heartbreaker at Michigan.

After the game, Paterno slaps a gag order on his players and assistant coaches and skips out of his press conference after a terse 21/2 minutes.

One veteran Penn State beat writer said it was the first time in his 20 years covering the team that the players were off-limits.

"You know I'm not going to let any of the players talk to you," a surly Paterno started Saturday. "We want to get out of here and go home."

Just a week before at Wisconsin, in a game ended at relatively the same time, Penn State players were available. Of course the big difference was the score -- 34-31 for Penn State that day.

There's no disputing that this latest loss hurts. Anyone who saw defensive back Richard Gardner fire his helmet to the ground and watch the pieces explode off it after Michigan's final score could see that.

It was the sixth straight loss to the Wolverines, who won't play Penn State again until 2005, and it likely crushed the Nittany Lions' hopes of a Big Ten title and damaged any major bowl hopes.

But did this loss sting any more than some of the other losses in Penn State history? Was it worse than the national championship loss to Alabama in the 1979 Sugar Bowl? How about to Toledo in 2000?

Were Paterno's players silenced after those games? No.

Take a look at another game on Saturday.

Could the Nittany Lions' loss have stung any more than
Florida State's 28-27 heartbreaker against top-ranked Miami. The Seminoles blew a 27-14 lead in the final quarter against their in-state rival and lost on another missed field goal on the final play.

The Nittany Nation loves to vilify Florida State's Bobby Bowden, but did he silence his players? No.

They took the defeat like men and likely learned a valuable lesson from it. Even kicker Xavier Beitia, who broke down and cried after his miss, released a statement.

And as usual, Bowden was on a teleconference Sunday to talk again about the loss.

We're not asking Joe to go that far, but how about a little more than 21/2 minutes for the people that are responsible for chronicling your team to the readers, viewers and listeners that are so rabid.

"I haven't got anything to tell you guys, OK. There's no sense of even wasting your time," he said getting up to leave Saturday. "We were in a tough football game and we got beaten and we didn't make a couple plays."

Guess what Joe? We don't mind having our time wasted, especially when your 64 players and assistant coaches are out of the picture.

You should face the music for more than 21/2 minutes.

Whether Paterno likes it or not, the media has been a part of the program's growth. Would Penn State be able to fill the 107,000 seats in Beaver Stadium if it wasn't for the attention that is devoted to the team in print, television and broadcast reports?

The relationship has been reciprocal with media outlets benefiting from the advertising generated by the program's sustained success.

In the end, the loser is not the media. It is those same Penn State players Paterno could be trying to protect and the fans that follow them.

Saturday's game was well-played with no turnovers and just 10 penalties.

Penn State fans deserved to hear about the game from the Nittany Lions' perspective and not just the Wolverines'.

Penn State's players deserved the right to make their own decision on whether they wanted to talk.

Football "has immense future character benefits for its players," Paterno has said.

Dealing with a tough loss is one of them.

Using those two buzz words -- poise and discipline -- is an important part.

Walt Moody is assistant sports editor for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4630 or wmoody@centredaily.com.