Sure a lot of people hate him. At times, he’s an angry old man who chases Big Ten officials down and scolds them like a schoolchild. But a lot of people love him too. Alex Ferguson tries to look at 2005’s Coach of the Year, and work out why there’s a love affair at all. My first experience, as an Englishman, with Joe Paterno, was watching him crack up on an ESPN documentary and tell the reporter in his Brooklyn accent: “I just love my kids.”
With this is mind, I decided in a flight of fancy to go to Happy Valley and see just if this love was shared. In a way, I also wanted to see him run out of the blue bus before game day and pay my respects.
When I finally managed to get up to Happy Valley in 2003, the buzz that was meant to be around Nittany Lion football was gone. People talked about Paterno with the words “too old” and “retirement” coming up as often as a someone with Tourette’s swears. They’d had a rough few seasons to kick off the new century, and weren’t happy. For them, Penn State was life, and losing wasn’t part of it for years.
When I returned in 2005 for the White Out game against Ohio State (a 17-10 victory, by the way), the buzz was back, and the feeling of love between Paterno and the Penn State faithful was rekindled.
That got me thinking about life, love, Paterno and the Penn State program. This is what I think:
I think people love Joe Paterno because he doesn’t let his players off the hook if they are failing academically. Whilst some schools allow their kids to graduate with joke degrees and with joke grades, Coach Paterno’s having none of it- even if it means risking his star players. In 1997, a young wide receiver called Joe Jurevicius, who had 10 TDs on the year didn’t show up for a test, and was banned for that season’s Citrus Bowl against Florida. But it’s not suprising if you consider that when he first walked into Happy Valley, he talked about the promotion of winning teams and scholar athletes.
And people at Penn State love Joe Paterno because they know the feeling’s mutual. That’s why Paterno gave $4 million out of his own pockets to expand Penn State’s library, and raised another $13.2 million in private donations for its contruction. The school named the library after him. I was up to the job of naming rights around the campus, I would name EVERY building after him.
Of course, there have been problems at Penn State during Coach Paterno’s tenure. Different athletes along the years- some of them who have gone on to make serious green in the NFL- have misbehaved themselves. There’s still the question of who’s going to take over after Joe Paterno finally untucks his pants and takes off his shoes- will it be his son Jay, or defensive coordinator Tom Bradley. Most seems to want the latter, by the way. But Paterno’s not about to go soon. He has had two of the best recruiting classes in all of college football in the last two years and he believes that he bring home another National Championship to Happy Valley. And you know what? He might just be right.
6 replies on “Thanks for staying- Joe”
RJ Warner doesn’t like it when… people refer to themselves in the third person. Haha. I’m anti-Penn State (you want some of this cernig?) but I do admire what Paterno did last year. Posluszny’s a beast. I voted for this one.
hahaha penn state, as easy as the games at home are this year, they have some brutal road games.
the man who will determine the season is morelli, who will try and fill mrob’s shoes at qb. he’s got the tools but if he has the leadership abilities and the poise that can lead penn state back to the bcs and/or a national championsip is still up in the air.
joepa is a nittany lion for life. he will die on the field, as sad as that may be. bradley will then take over.
look out for the lions in ’06!
I watched Morelli play in HS… and I wasn’t overly impressed. All his team did was run the ball and he didn’t throw a lot, so maybe I don’t have a real idea of what he can do. Some people are pretty blah on him and others think he’s a potential All-American. We’ll see, I guess.
Yo cernig…. Drop me an email at [email protected]. Let’s talk Penn State.
Went to the OSU and Wisconsin games at Happy Valley in 05. The place, as you get guess, was rocking.
We are……back.
from what i heard im pretty sure him and henne, the scUM qb went head to head when they were seniors and morelli was a bust. part of the reason why henne swtiched out of psu to go to scUM instead.
he’s got a cannon and looked good during the blue-white game… that’s all I have to go on he didn’t do much the past 2 yrs except hand the ball off during blow-outs.
you are absolutley correct tho, we’ll see, i guess.
check your email man