Published: August 30, 2008 12:29 am            

HUGH CONRAD | JoePa’s future still in doubt

The 2008 college football season looked like a storybook line for Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

The 81-year-old coach was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame last month, and with just one win less than Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, this race to the top of the career coaching leader would be a football fan’s delight.

Instead, Paterno is being dogged right now by complaints from some of those people who had revered him as a coach.

The doubts were fueled by an explosive ESPN segment of “Outside the Lines” last month, one that criticized the large number of his players who have had criminal charges filed against them.

The greatest concern for Paterno is that he is being criticized by those people who used to believe that he walked on water, those who have closets of Penn State paraphernalia in their homes, even those who have life-sized cutouts of JoePa in their rec rooms: The longtime, die-hard Nittany Lions fans.

In the final year of his contract with Penn State, Paterno has engaged in talks with both President Graham Spanier and Athletic Director Tim Curley about a resolution to the situation. Paterno told reporters prior to his induction to the college hall of fame that “the way I feel right now, (I can coach) four, five, six years.”

That may have caused some dyspepsia for Spanier.

No future talks are scheduled until the end of the season, when Paterno will be 82.

His case for a contract extension or a new contract were not helped by the ESPN piece. In it, the network researched through legal documents in Pennsylvania courthouses, primarily those in Centre County, home to Penn State.

The research focused on the past six years, and in that time, 46 players have been charged with 163 counts of various crimes. Of those 46, 27 players have been convicted of 45 counts.

Spanier was upset when confronted with the numbers.

“However you count them, the numbers are too high,” he said. “It’s embarrassing to the university, and it’s not consistent with the history of exemplary behavior that we’re much more accustomed to with our athletes.’’

Paterno called it a “witch hunt,” but when the brand name is damaged, as Penn State’s has been under Paterno, then the end may be near.

This is a sad situation for the legacy of a coach who elevated a good Penn State program when he was an assistant to coach Rip Engle in the 1950s and early 1960s into one of the best in the country in the late 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. In Paterno’s first 10 years, the Nittany Lions compiled an unbelievable 93-18-1 record.

That included three undefeated seasons and two seasons with one loss. It also featured arguably the greatest defense in college football history in 1968 and 1969, with future college and NFL hall of fame linebacker Jack Ham and tackle Steve Smear, both Bishop McCort High School graduates.

Today, those longtime fans who can remember the outstanding seasons have to face the fact that the Nittany Lions have experienced four losing seasons in the past eight years.

However, the angst of the Penn State Nation revolves around what used to be Paterno’s strongest area: Discipline.

When I was a student at Penn State in the late 1960s and early 70s, I watched Paterno bench a future Hall of Famer, Franco Harris, along with another top draft choice, Lydell Mitchell. At the time, I thought that the penalty was excessive, but as I coached, I realized how important discipline is for football coaches.

So, whether or not Paterno receives a contract extension at the end of the year may not depend upon how well the Nittany Lions do on the field.

The off-the-field shenanigans may end his career, and that is a shame regardless of what college team you support.



Hugh Conrad is a free-lance writer and former St. Francis football coach.

        

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