By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- In the Penn State locker room, where the subject was decidedly roses, University President Dr. Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley were never far from camera range.
They matched Joe Paterno beaming smile for beaming smile, which would appear to indicate they're OK with the notion that old coach pretty much rehired himself on the eve of this Big Ten championship game. He told a frothy Friday night pep rally that he fully intended to run out of the tunnel next fall, his 44th as the face of the university, even going so far as to fairly guarantee a win against Michigan State.Too bad he didn't guarantee one at Iowa two weeks ago, but that's water over the spilt milk dam, and even though that one-point road loss was the only dropped stitch in an otherwise perfect autumn tapestry, Penn State's reservation in the Rose Bowl was essentially presented here yesterday without thorns.
"I've planned on coming back all along," Paterno said in the minutes after his 43rd pride of Lions ripped apart a Michigan State team that woke up yesterday with an outside shot at this same conference title. "I never had any plans otherwise. In the next couple weeks we'll sit down with Tim Curry and President Spanier and we say, 'What about this, what do you think of that.'
"But right now I have no plans to leave."
Of course, when you're going to be 82 in four weeks you don't really plan much of anything, particularly when you'll likely be spending your birthday in full rehab from hip surgery. Those meetings with the president and the AD will likely go a little differently than they did four years ago, when Paterno disavowed them of any suspicion that someone other than the coach would decide when the coach was finished.
Yesterday's 49-18 victory was the 800th in Penn State history, which stretches to 1887. Of those 800, Paterno has won 383 of them. No. 800 was Penn State's 27th in its past 29 home games, 42nd in its past 52 in general.
It's so much closer to what his spoiled constituency expects, so much more traditional than what had horrified it, such as home losses to Iowa by scores like 6-4 in the darkest days of '03 and '04.
"Our fans, they expect so much," Paterno sighed. "And that's good. I mean it's cold, it's windy, and the place is packed. But I don't feel vindicated, and to even think about that suggests some animosity, and I don't have any."
Paterno may have drifted into a reliably cantankerous posture some years ago, just as some of us did 30 years ahead of his schedule, but he's always tremendously adaptable and even a progressive within the culture of football. Of his two national championships, one was accomplished with a first-round draft pick at quarterback, the other with a quarterback who never entertained any professional allusions.
The team that went 11-1 this year ran what it calls the Spread HD offense, a product of both Paterno's lifelong learning and some extremely gifted men 60 years his junior. Even within these innovations, Penn State found space within yesterday's flogging for some old-fashioned Lions offense, like an inside handoff to a fullback -- what's that, you ask? -- a fullback, who bulled 4 yards up the middle for a second-quarter touchdown behind center A.Q. Shipley, who bullied Spartans linebacker Greg Jones halfway to College Avenue. This on an afternoon when Penn State got more yards through the air, 415, than in any game in its history.
Penn state players Stephfon Green, left, and Derrick Williams (2), right, carry the Big Ten Championship trophy out of the locker room. Matthew O'Haren/BWI Photo
"I've been proud of them for four years," Paterno said. "Last year we let a few games get away and we had our problems with some kids who didn't have time to grow up and we made some tough decisions. But these guys stuck together and it's been a great experience being around them. Win or lose, it's been a great experience.
"I'm just delighted for them. I hope 10 years from now, they look back at the whole experience and think, 'By God, I'm glad I went to Penn State.' "
Some of 'em came closer to the state pen, and the coach and the university hierarchy took their deserved lumps for it. Through it all, the old coach urged patience.
"I always thought if we could just get a couple kids with a little better attitude that we'd be all right."
Paterno spent his seventh consecutive game in the press box with an ailing hip. He spent his most animated postgame moments waving his cane at people, thanking Spanier for putting heaters on the sideline.
"If I'd have been on the sideline," he told his players, "there would have been no heaters. But I couldn't be up there in the nice warm press box and leave you guys out in the cold."
The old coach's health now remains the only wild card in the perpetual discussion of his future. What yesterday did was force everyone to look around again at what he has done, at how he has adapted, at how he cares about what he's doing and what it means going forward -- always going forward -- and conclude that there's no good reason to change things.
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on November 23, 2008 at 12:00 am
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