STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – One of the most closely watched injuries in college football belongs to an 81-year-old man who hasn’t played a snap in six decades.

Of course, when that man is Penn State coach Joe Paterno, every step is watched, every word scrutinized.

The Hall of Famer said Tuesday his sore right leg still hurts enough that he won’t decide until week’s end on whether he’ll coach undefeated Penn State (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) from the sideline or the pressbox for Saturday night’s contest at Wisconsin.

Coaching from the sideline remains a week-to-week proposition. He relegated himself to the box for the No. 6 Nittany Lions’ win last week over Purdue, after spending the entire victory the previous week over Illinois on the field.

“It’s up and down. It’s one of those things I’m going to have for a while, so I just have to live with it but we’ll see by the end of the week,” Paterno said Tuesday at Beaver Stadium.

The injury occurred while demonstrating an onside kick at practice the week before the season opener against Coastal Carolina. It’s part of a fun ritual to signify the end of practice each week.

Paterno admits he “overdid some things” then. The pain appeared to get worse after Penn State’s win Sept. 13 over Syracuse on the hard artificial turf of the Carrier Dome.

He revealed the injury before the Sept. 20 home win over Temple, and spent the second half of that game in the box.

On Tuesday, Paterno appeared a little more at ease climbing three steps in the media room to get to the microphone, his gait looking slightly more steady than the slow and pronounced limp he’s had on the field at times recently.

“I’m going to live with it a couple weeks, maybe even more than that. But hey, that’s why I get the big money,” he snickered.

The once-avid walker can’t go the five or six miles a day he used try to stroll – and it’s especially not an option if there’s practice that afternoon.

To save wear and tear, Paterno gets shuttled around practice on a golf cart. His shrill voice is still ever-present, quarterback Daryll Clark said.

“I tell you the only thing he doesn’t do is walk. If there’s a problem at practice, he’ll address it,” Clark said.

The cart allows Paterno to get his point across more quickly.

“In fact, I probably harass them more now then when I do when I walk,” Paterno quipped. “I can get their faster, though I have a lousy driver.”

In the press box, Paterno says he can make more a significant contribution to assistants and players from a tactical standpoint.

Yet it’s the gameday interactions on the sideline that he misses most. He’s old-school when it comes to describing his sideline habits, preferring to talk about his need to encourage or get a “feel” for his players than about Xs and Os.

And that often-photographed moment when a stoic Paterno is waiting in front of his players to lead them out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel just before they trot out before games still gives him goose bumps.

“I miss running out on the field,” he said. “I used to love just to get out there, the crowd fired me up, the whole bit,” he said. “But a lot worse things can happen.”

In an odd coincidence, Penn State’s visit Saturday night to Wisconsin will be the first to Camp Randall Stadium since Paterno tore left knee ligaments there during a nasty sideline collision in 2006. It was an injury similar to the one suffered by Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis earlier this season.

Paterno spent the last two games of the 2006 campaign watching from the press box while he recovered. That knee is now fine, Paterno said Tuesday.

He was vague when asked how his latest injury might affect his coaching future after this season, when his contract expires.

“It really hasn’t. I mean, I …” Paterno said before cutting himself short. “It hasn’t, let me just leave it at that.”

Talks are on hold until after the season, though both Paterno and university president Graham Spanier have insisted that the 43-year coaching veteran doesn’t need something in writing to keep working.