Midway through his senior year in college in 1974, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel interviewed with Joe Paterno for a graduate assistant's post at Penn State.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - It was December of 1974 when Jim Tressel, midway through his senior year at Baldwin-Wallace College, hopped into the family car and took a road trip out of Ohio.

He headed for State College, where he had a job interview with Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. Tressel wanted to be a graduate assistant for the Nittany Lions.

Whether he didn’t get the job or turned it down before it could be offered, Tressel ended up taking a similar position at the University of Akron.

Thirty-six years later, Paterno is still the head coach of the Nittany Lions — with 400 wins and counting — and Tressel is 10 years into a successful tenure at Ohio State. The teams and the coaches will meet again on Saturday.

“I don’t know that I didn’t get the job, and I’m not saying here I was offered the job, but I knew riding home from Penn State I wasn’t going there,” Tressel said on Tuesday.

His father, Lee Tressel, a hall of fame coach at Baldwin-Wallace, had already made a career decision for his son.

“My dad told me I was going to Akron,” Jim Tressel said. “So, now, was I offered the job? Maybe my dad knew I wasn’t (going to get it), I don’t know. But it was the right thing to do because I got more responsibility where I went. It was probably the more glamorous thing to (work for Paterno) because I was all taken with Penn State.”

All this time later, Tressel still doesn’t know exactly how his career took the path it did.

“I don’t know why I didn’t get the job,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “Do you know something? Did Joe tell you?”

This week’s game pits the two winningest active Division I coaches. Paterno, in his 45th year in Happy Valley, is 400-132-3, while Tressel is 237-79-2 in 25 years (including 15 at Football Championship Subdivision Youngstown State).

Paterno captured his landmark 400th victory on Saturday, leading Penn State back from a 21-0 deficit to beat Northwestern 35-21.

Paterno, who is 8-13 against Ohio State, recognizes that a personal watershed doesn’t compare with the task of knocking off a powerhouse that has won or shared the last five Big Ten titles.

“We’re not going to play against a team that’s as well organized, as well disciplined as this club with the kind of talent it has, it will be a good experience for us,” he said Tuesday.