No country for old coaches: The Joe Paterno saga
Every aspect of the world has changed a lot over the last 55 years, but throughout Vietnam, Watergate, the Iranian revolution, the fall of the Soviet Union, the first and second Gulf Wars, and the death of Osama bin Laden, there has been one immutable constant in sports. Since 1966, Joe Paterno has been the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Paterno’s resilency is remarkable. Nine different American presidents have been in office during his tenure, sports leagues have sprung up and died and his own school has gone from an independent to a member of the Big Ten. All-color television programming didn’t even start until 1972. Now Paterno’s conference has a massive television network all to itself, which has been key to the Big Ten’s rise.
There are few men in any field who have held the same critical position for that long, and Paterno’s achievement becomes even more remarkable when you consider how rapidly most college football teams burn through coaches. For example, in-state rival Pitt has had 12 different head coaches over that time span (with one, Johnny Majors, serving two separate stints), and fellow Big Ten program Michigan has had six separate coaches. Paterno has been there through it all, an unflinching rock against a sea of change. His 408-136-3 record is incredible, and he’s the first and only FBS coach to reach 400 victories. He’s won more bowl games than any coach in history, and he’s one of only three active coaches already inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He stands against the odds, like Horatius at the bridge or the Spartans at Thermopylae.
No one can conquer the odds forever, though, and even the strongest rocks get eroded by water over time. So too, there are signs of cracks in Paterno’s impressive façade. He’s 84 now, and the whispers about either his imminent retirement or the school forcing him out are growing louder every year. He’s suffered an incredible series of health issues over the years, including broken ribs, hip replacements, a broken leg and an intestinal bug. This year, a receiver crashed into him during a practice and he suffered hairline fractures to his arm and hip. The health concerns aren’t going anywhere, and they may be what eventually forces Paterno away from the sidelines.
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There are issues beyond just health, too. Penn State’s recruiting hasn’t been as dominant as it once was, and many blame Paterno’s age and uncertain future for that. It’s hard to sell recruits on a school where there’s so much discussion about how long the head coach will stay there. There hasn’t been a lot of success lately, either. The Nittany Lions claimed Big Ten championships in 2005 and 2008, but they haven’t won a BCS bowl since the 2005 season and slumped to 7-6 last year. They may be 7-1 this year and ranked No. 21 in the Associated Press poll, but they’re not all that highly regarded, and they could conceivably go into all of their remaining games (vs. Illinois, vs. No. 13 Nebraska, at Ohio State and at No. 12 Wisconsin) as underdogs. If they lose all of those games and their bowl game, it’s another 7-6 year, and that may not be good enough to hold back the building pressure to move on from Paterno.
Paterno obviously won’t be there forever, and the question is not if he’ll go, but when and how. There obviously would be some benefits to Penn State if they were able to move on sooner rather than later, but the Lions are in a difficult position; Paterno’s a walking legend who embodies much of their football history, so an ugly parting could have significant negative ramifications for the school and its future. Allowing him to leave on his terms isn’t ideal, either; the longer he stays, the more Penn State’s recruiting and profile may slip, and more and more damage to their program could be done. The Nittany Lions have a tough balance to find, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way out unless Paterno retires of his own will soon.
So why hasn’t Paterno left already? He’s left an indelible imprint on Penn State and college football as a whole, he’s stamped his name all over the record books and his career wins record is going to be tough to beat. The world of college football has changed while he largely hasn’t, and some might think that would compel him to move on. That’s not Paterno, though. Here’s what Joe Posnanski wrote about him for Sports Illustrated in 2009:
He still has something left to teach these kids. Times have not changed that much. “I think kids today, they are confused,” Joe says. “They long for some kind of discipline. They want something bigger than themselves, something bigger to be a part of. We can still offer that here.”
The real question is,though, for how much longer will Paterno be able to offer it?
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