But Joe Paterno is not a believer in the unknown, despite what the meteorologists and oddsmakers are predicting.

It would seem, however, that the Beavers travel to Happy Valley for the first time with the dam stacked against them. There are the long trip east, the potential of a road game in stormy conditions, and the lingering hangover of an error-filled loss to Stanford in the season opener.

Apparently, that translates to Oregon State's being a two-touchdown-plus underdog. But Paterno, after watching the Beavers (0-1) fumble away the 36-28 loss to Stanford, isn't buying the Vegas line.

"Oregon State beat themselves," the Nittany Lions coach said yesterday during his weekly teleconference. "So I came away from that game thinking, 'Hey, we're going to have our hands full.' And nothing has changed."

As of last night, little had changed as far as Hanna went. A possible hurricane, Hanna was creating havoc in the Caribbean with a projected path up the East Coast. Penn State (1-0), for the time being, is preparing for blue and white skies.

"If the weather forecast still looks like it's going to be a tough day on Saturday, we'll do a couple things on Thursday a little differently, but I'm not going to change our routine until I find out for sure," Paterno said.

Since being renamed head coach at Oregon State in 2003, Mike Riley, who coached the Beavers in 1997 and 1998, has ventured east of the Mississippi for three regular-season games.

In each - against Louisiana State, Louisville and Cincinnati - Oregon State has lost. The Beavers are 0-6 in nonconference road games under Riley.

"On the road, we've got to hopefully learn from the past, but we just got to go play, regardless of where it is," Riley said. "Whether it's in front of 110,000 at Penn State or wherever it might be, it's all about how you play."

According to Paterno, Riley's three years heading the San Diego Chargers should be enough experience in the travails of traveling.

"We can't hope that something's going to happen in their preparation that is going to make it easier for us," Paterno said. "I think he knows what he's doing."

The Beavers do have an extra few days of preparation, having played Thursday. This will be the Lions' first Pacific Ten opponent since Southern Cal in 2000. They are 5-1 against the conference since 1993.

A win would at least restore a little luster to the Big Ten after Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State dropped closely contested nonconference openers.

Penn State originally had Arkansas State as its Game 2 foe, but picked up Oregon State in December to seemingly strengthen its schedule. The Red Wolves, though, shocked Texas A&M last week, leaving the Beavers to test an old Paterno adage.

"If you've got a good football team, it probably gets better from the first game to the second game than any time in the season," Paterno said. "We'll know a lot more about our football team after this game on Saturday."

Nittany notes. Because of concerns over their depth, the Lions tried some starters at other positions Saturday. Guard Stefen Wisniewski played some center and Josh Gaines moved from defensive end to tackle briefly. . . . Paterno said he wasn't worried about quarterback Pat Devlin and keeping the sophomore motivated after he was named the backup. "I have not seen anything different," he said. "I patted him on the back after the game and said: 'Hey, nice going, Pat, you had a good day. Keep concentrating.' "