Both have been known to tell a joke - or 20.

While Rickles, the comedian from Queens, is known to insult everyone, Paterno likes to direct his barbs at his football players.

This season, the Penn State coach could bring his own ba-da-bum drummer to practice. And it's not necessarily because the Brooklyn native has gotten any funnier. This team is just better than most at accepting his constant haranguing.

"Sometimes it's poking fun. Sometimes it's yelling at you. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference," senior guard Rich Ohrnberger said. "I've been here a long time now, and over the years you develop a rapport with him. He's got a different joke for everybody."

With sixth-ranked Penn State (5-0) preparing to travel to Purdue for a Saturday kickoff at noon, there is a lot to laugh about. For the 81-year-old Paterno, his team's start and their blithe relationship are not mutually exclusive. On more than one occasion, he has noted how much he likes this group.

"These kids are mature enough and have enough respect for the coaching staff . . . that you can horse around with them a little bit and they'll respond in the proper way," Paterno said yesterday during his weekly teleconference.

Sometimes Paterno needles by questioning a player's toughness, as Ohrnberger can attest. Other times, he challenges a defensive tackle to a race. And sometimes it involves an ethnic slur.

"He'll hit me with some German stuff," Ohrnberger said.

Even Paterno's paisanos get it. "But I'm used to that stuff now," senior safety Anthony Scirrotto said.

Paterno, who will turn 82 in December, said he was not overanalytical about blurring the line between "serious Joe" and "comical Joe."

"You've got to be yourself," he said. "You can't be worried about whether, hey, I shouldn't have told that joke or I shouldn't have horsed around with this guy. You do what you've got to do, and if it doesn't work it doesn't work. If it works, great."

"It's not the same week after week," senior wide receiver Derrick Williams said. "He delivers it in a different way because he knows that once he gets the message across to the upperclassmen, we're going to pass it down to the younger guys on the team."

Sometimes that message, delivered by the upperclassmen to underclassmen, is: "Don't take him too literally."

"The expression tough love comes to mind," Ohrnberger said. "To deal with it, you can't have thin skin around here."

And other times, the message is: "Don't heckle him when he's in Don Rickles mode."

"I'll get on him every now and then," Scirrotto said, "but I don't want to say too much because he's got the power to put my butt on the bench."

Injury update. Wide receiver Jordan Norwood, who missed last week's Illinois game with a hamstring pull, is listed as probable for Saturday. "I think he's going to be OK," Paterno said. "But don't hold me to that." . . . Quarterback Daryll Clark said he had taken a hit on a knee against Illinois, but had been icing it and could fully practice. . . . Paterno admitted that his right leg was aching. "I tell the guys on the team there is a difference between being hurt and being injured," he said. "If you're injured, we don't want you to play. But if you're hurt, you better get out there. Right now I'm hurt."

Check out staff writer Jeff McLane's "Lion Eyes" blog at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-pennstate/