CHICAGO — Paul Posluszny can't stop watching the play in which he wrecked his right knee.

The remote control gets a workout when the Orange Bowl video is on a television screen. Rewind, fast forward. Rewind, fast forward. He's viewed it plenty of times since the game.

"It was a stupid mistake on my part," Penn State's all-American linebacker said Tuesday, shaking his head.

The game in January was the last time Posluszny did any serious hitting. With practice starting next week, the Big Ten's preseason defensive player of the year is eager to get physical again.

"I'm back to 100 percent, I'm ready to go," he said.

Posluszny partially tore two knee ligaments but didn't need surgery. Coach Joe Paterno said his star linebacker could have practiced in the spring but was held back anyway. Posluszny was so eager to mix it up that Paterno said he had to take his helmet and shoulder pads way from him to eliminate spring temptation.

"I'll give it back if he's nice to me," Paterno joked to a throng of reporters huddled around him at Big Ten media day.

Nearby, Posluszny drew a crowd, too. It was quite a different scene for him last year, when the Nittany Lions drew little attention coming off a losing season.

"I remember sitting here alone for about an hour," Posluszny said.

Now, the Nittany Lions are hip again. Things change after your team goes 11-1, captures the Big Ten title, finishes third in the polls and wins the Orange Bowl.

If anyone at Penn State might have bad memories of the bowl game, it might be the guy teammates call "Pos" or "Puz." By the end of that warm winter night in Miami, he was a spectator on the sidelines, watching the game from a cart with his right leg laid out and wrapped up.

The injury happened after Florida State running back Lorenzo Booker went low to block on a fast-approaching Posluszny. The linebacker said he had been tutored to look out for Booker's blocks, but forgot what he was taught in the heat of the moment.

"If I did what I was taught, everything would have been fine. I wouldn't have gotten hurt," Posluszny said.

Posluszny is returning to a defense that will have a different look when practice starts. Gone are all four starters from last year's secondary, as well as three starters from the defensive line that did a good job last season of occupying blockers. That allowed Posluszny and his linebacking mates to make big plays.

The starting linebackers return and there are quality backups. The linebackers figure to be the strength of the defense, though it's still unclear how a rehabilitated Posluszny will perform.

Using a lineup with three defensive linemen and four linebackers might be a possibility for Penn State, instead of the typical 4-3 base defense, though Paterno says he is reluctant to stray from the tried-and-true. A lot will depend on how his untested linemen perform in practice, he said.

"I'd love to stay with what we've done because we know it," Paterno said.

Injury aside, Posluszny figures he's got plenty of room for improvement, even if he did win an award as the best college linebacker in 2005. Besides the Orange Bowl video, he has also been watching tape of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, perhaps the best linebacker in the NFL.

If vintage Posluszny re-emerges, the top college linebacker might again be wearing blue-and-white.