MIAMI (AP) – Everyone over the age of 65 – heck, anyone over 50 – should send Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno a little token of thanks this week.

It doesn’t have to be much. Some golf tees. Black socks. Even lawn-care tips would be nice. Anything to show some appreciation for two guys who struck a blow for oldsters everywhere Tuesday night with a thrilling Orange Bowl that was anything but geriatric.

Three overtimes. Four missed field goals. Finally, almost five hours after it began, Kevin Kelly kicked a 29-yarder to give No. 3 Penn State a 26-23 victory over No. 22 Florida State.

Bowden and Paterno have taken all kinds of flak the last few years, with critics saying the game had passed them by and suggesting they make way for somebody younger. Which really is just a nicer, more polite way of saying, “Go away, old man, we have no use for you anymore.”

Senior citizens hear different versions of that same thing every day. When companies downsize, it’s the oldest employees who are the first to go. There’s little patience for those who don’t move as fast or hear as well as they once did. Grandparents tend to be forgotten until a birthday or holidays roll around.

Yet here were the patriarchs of college football, with a combined age of 155, staying up long past their bedtimes and showing the whippersnappers a thing or two with one of the most exciting and entertaining games of the bowl season. The AARP couldn’t come up with a better campaign to tout the vitality of senior citizens.

That Bowden and Paterno are old is no secret. Paterno, who turned 79 two weeks ago, and the 76-year-old Bowden have been coaching for 40 years, longer than some of their players’ parents have been alive. They are the winningest coaches in major college history, with Bowden leading Paterno 359-354.

But they rarely play each other, only eight times in the last 40 years. There’s something quaint about watching one roam the sidelines. Put both of them at the same game, especially in this, the second-biggest game of the year, and it’s like a Gray Panther rally.

This game wasn’t the best for either coach, by any means. The teams combined for 21 penalties and 172 yards. Penn State’s senior quarterback Michael Robinson fumbled inside the 5-yard line. Seminoles freshman quarterback Drew Weatherford was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

But overall it was far better entertainment than most bowl games, providing excitement for not one day, but two.

Critics’ biggest complaint of Paterno was that he refused to abandon his beloved I-formation when everyone else was running some version of the spread offense. Paterno is never going to be mistaken for Steve Spurrier – the man doesn’t wear baseball caps, let alone a visor – but he’s shown this year that he’s not afraid to open it up.

On third-and-14 late in the fourth quarter, Robinson connected with Isaac Smolko for a 21-yard gain over the middle, then followed with a 38-yard pass up the right side to Jordan Norwood. None of it mattered when Kelly missed a 29-yard field goal with 35 seconds left, but it was still fun to see the Nittany Lions going deep.

Florida State’s offense might not be the juggernaut it once was, but it still has some dazzling speed. The Seminoles scored two touchdowns in an 80-second span in the second quarter, getting one on Willie Reid’s 87-yard punt return and another on a 57-yard pass to Lorenzo Booker.

But some of the best entertainment came from the codgers on the sidelines.

Their reactions after the missed field goals were priceless.

Bowden was incredulous at all the misses, appearing to mouth, “What in the heck?” after Gary Cismesia’s second miss. Paterno patted Kelly on the helmet after his first miss, then reached out to put his arm around the freshman kicker after the second.

When Florida State’s James Coleman was dragged down in the final minute of the first half for what appeared to be a safety, only to have officials say it was a loss of yardage on forward progress, Paterno raced after them like a guy half his age.

Bowden spent the night roaming up and down the sidelines, chomping gum and writing repeatedly on a tiny squares of paper, blue in the first half, white in the second. Whenever there was another penalty, he’d grimace and bark into his headset.

He stayed far away from his team’s bobbing mosh pit before overtime, but that just shows that with age, comes some sense.

So score one for the old guys. Next thing you know, they’ll be saying 70 is the new 30.

AP-ES-01-04-06 0112EST