LOS ANGELES -- Two of college football's coaching heavyweights will duke it out in the Rose Bowl.

Penn State's Joe Paterno is the Model T of Division I-A coaches; Southern California's Pete Carroll is the latest edition of a Corvette.

Paterno, 82, was born three years after the Nittany Lions played the Trojans in the 1923 Rose Bowl. And he joined the Penn State coaching staff in 1950, a year before Carroll, 57, was born.

Paterno is completing his 43rd year as the Lions' boss and his 59th as a member of the coaching staff. Earlier this month, he was rewarded with a three-year contract extension that would make him 85 at its completion.

"That's so far off the charts, I don't know how you could ever think that that could happen again," Carroll said. "This is one time and one time only.

"It's an all-time accomplishment. It's extraordinary that he's still working and going, and he's got a lot of energy and juice left, so I think a three-year contract sounds conservative to me."

Carroll was joking, of course, but nobody is laughing at the two coaches' resumes.

Paterno is the winningest coach in major-college history with 383 victories. He also is the all-time leader in bowl appearances (35) and victories (23) and he has won two national championships.

"It's a nice aspect of this game," Carroll said. "It's exciting to have the opportunity to go against him in such a big setting and a big matchup and all of that. ... We just don't want him to get us. We'll try to get him if we can."

Carroll is 87-15 in eight years as the Trojans' coach with two national titles.

"There are two or three young coaches out there that really changed the whole game of football," Paterno said. "Pete certainly has been right there at the top of it."

Carroll held five college assistant coaching jobs his first 10 seasons, then spent 16 years in the NFL as an assistant and head coach before returning to the college ranks at USC in 2001.

"We're all copycats in the coaching business when somebody is doing some things as innovative as Pete has done there at Southern Cal," Paterno said. "Pete wins 11 games like every month, every day. He's phenomenal."

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez said Paterno was in a playful mood Friday when the two teams visited Disneyland.

"He was joking around," Sanchez said. "He remembered recruiting [linebacker] Brian Cushing, and he was up there and we were talking together and he gave Cush a little chin-check with his fist. That was pretty funny.

"And JoePa was talking about him and coach Carroll duking it out before the game and stuff. He's been fun to be around. He's a legendary coach. I'm excited to be on the same field with him."

Penn State wide receiver Deon Butler loves playing for Paterno, but he admires the program Carroll has built, too.

"I think people look at them as icons," Butler said yesterday. "Pete Carroll is a great coach. Everyone knows who he is and the factory that he's produced at USC.

"When I saw him at Disneyland, I wanted to shake his hand. Then I remembered I was a player on the other team, and I might not want to do that."

Butler said Paterno and Carroll employ two different coaching styles, but both are highly effective.

"Coach Paterno seems to be a little more hard-nosed and maybe a little more stern," Sanchez said. "That's not to say coach Carroll isn't strict because he'll get on you. Both styles work. Obviously, their records speak to that."

Carroll, 25 years younger than Paterno, was asked if he might still be coaching when he is in his 80s.

"I can't even fathom it," he said. "I've been at USC for eight years, and he's been coaching, what, more than five times that long. I can't imagine it.

"He's a fireball. He's energetic. He's feisty. He's tough, an extraordinary competitor. All of that kind of stuff keeps him battling."