STATE COLLEGE — Penn State wideout Deon Butler is getting an earful from his senior teammates about finishing strong.

Win their last three games — starting with Saturday's contest against Purdue (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) — and No. 11 Penn State (7-1, 4-1) can clinch the conference's BCS bid.

"There's excitement that we're so close ... why not finish it out hard?" said Butler, a redshirt freshman who is Penn State's leading receiver. "The seniors are so excited to finish out the season and get into a BCS game."

The Boilermakers face a tougher task: they must win their last four games just to avoid coach Joe Tiller's first losing record in nine seasons at Purdue.

After starting the year with a Top 25 ranking and lofty aspirations, Purdue has lost five straight, including a 31-20 defeat last week to Wisconsin in which the Boilermakers had five turnovers.

"It's disappointing to lose one game, let alone five in a row," Tiller said. "Every day we stress ball security; it's not like it's something we don't talk about or work on anymore."

Penn State coach Joe Paterno can empathize. In fact, when asked why Purdue has struggled this year, Paterno's answer sounded a lot like a response he has given in the past about why Penn State struggled to losing records the previous two seasons, citing turnovers and "a little bad luck here and there."

"I really couldn't put in three sentences as to why they haven't done better, record-wise," Paterno said. "They have a lot of good football players and they have a good coach."

Paterno speaks fondly of Tiller and their first encounter at an airport bar when Tiller introduced himself to Paterno and the two started chatting. In his 40th season as Penn State coach, Paterno is impressed with the impact Tiller's passing schemes have had on the blue-collar Big Ten.

"When he came into the league, he changed the whole attitude of the league because of the fact that he came in with the idea that we didn't have to knock each other's brains out every play," Paterno said.

If Tiller is to turn around this season, he will need improvement from a defense that gives up a Division I-A-worst 348 passing yards a game.

Tiller isn't expected to make a decision on who will quarterback his team until game day. The choices are redshirt freshman Curtis Painter, who started last week and was supposed to take the majority of practice snaps this week, and Brandon Kirsch, a senior who started the first six games.

There's no question who quarterbacks at Penn State. Fifth-year senior Michael Robinson has excelled in his first full year leading the Nittany Lions' dangerous offensive attack.

Robinson, along with senior cornerback Alan Zemaitis and junior linebacker Paul Posluszny, knows how quickly losses can pile up in the Big Ten. So they are trying to force younger players like Butler into a "one-game-at-a-time" mindset.

"They're quick to tell us any team can beat any team," said Butler, who has 25 catches for 456 yards and six touchdowns. "Any time and any point, anybody can beat anybody in the Big Ten."

Robinson would be proud that his message is sinking in, with the goal of a BCS bowl still in mind.

"For the first time, we have a chance to control our destiny," Robinson said. "That dream is impossible if we don't focus from week to week. That's the message our captains try to get across."