The Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - It will take more than a five-game losing streak to force Penn State football coach Joe Paterno to quit.

A call from the White House? Perhaps.

A week after a front-page headline in the Philadelphia Daily News declared, "Joe Must Go," Paterno dismissed such criticism and said he's not going anywhere - unless, that is, President Bush needs him.

"If the White House called me and said they needed me to go over to Iraq, I might go over. I don't know," Paterno said Tuesday. "Whether you like it or not, I am going to be around next year, so relax."

Penn State (2-7, 0-5 Big Ten) goes into Saturday's game at Northwestern with the worst Big Ten start since joining the league in 1993 and the first five-game losing streak in the Paterno era.

CENTRAL FLORIDA: Starting cornerback Omar Laurence was arrested by university police Wednesday and charged with having a gun on campus and stealing another gun during an on-campus fight, police said.

Laurence, 21, was arrested for possession of an unloaded 9 mm pistol on campus, which he allegedly stole during a fight with another man who was not a UCF student, police said.

A 7.62 mm rifle with the serial number scratched off later was found in Laurence's car. It also was not loaded.

TULANE: Running back Mewelde Moore, Conference USA's preseason Offensive Player of the Year, has a broken bone in his left hand and is expected to miss the rest of the season.