Joe Paterno is a god amongst men. The guy is a football genius. He’s one of the most inspirational head coaches to roam the sidelines and he’s stood the test of time, coaching as well as ever at the young age of 83. His teams have won two National Championships and three Big Ten titles. He holds a career coaching record of 397–131–3.

It’s certainly safe to say he has been around long enough to know a thing or two about college football. More importantly, he knows how to get the most out of college students, often inspiring them through his words.

And if there’s anything Illinois needs right now, heading to one of the toughest places to play, it’s some inspiration. So let’s play a little game I like to call “Applying Inspirational Joe Paterno Quotes to the 2010 Illini Football Team.”

n “Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart and mind — confidence is the key to all the locks.”

Illinois has all of those except discipline — the Illini committed nine penalties for 74 yards against Ohio State. Fix that, and they have a shot to win their first game at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

n “Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.”

This is huge. The past two years, Illinois didn’t play well early in the season, and the players hung their heads as feces continued to hit the fan. This year, the Illini will be — and have been — knocked around a bit. What will determine their record will be how they can bounce back and win the games they should win.

n “The minute you think you’ve got it made, disaster is just around the corner.”

This one really relates to Penn State more than Illinois (except for 2007 and the aftermath). Coming into this season, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 19 in the AP Poll. Since then, they have lost two games and haven’t beaten anyone worth noting. In addition, JoePa and company are ranked No. 100 in the nation for points per game. Woof. Maybe they just aren’t that good.

n “You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.”

Here’s one that completely sums up Illinois football. Losing has been a habit in Champaign from 2008 until now. The Rose Bowl season was an anomaly. They always say that winning is a habit, but so is losing, and the Illini were on the losing end 16 of 24 times in 2008 and 2009.

No better time to quit that losing habit cold turkey than now.

n “Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things.”

This one’s a no-brainer. If you’ve listened to Martez Wilson talk about his lofty goals for this season, you know he believes he is destined to do great things. But this also really describes the mindset of the 2007 Illini and what every team should stand for. J Leman was a great player because he had talent, but more than that, he had a strong work ethic and an unbelievable amount of heart.

If this team has all of that, which appears to be the case, this year could end up being something more than your standard Rashard Mendenhall-less season — regardless of the outcome in Happy Valley.

Alex Iniguez is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @alexiniguez.