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At 75, PSU's Paterno still fired up
 By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
Nov 6, 2002
 
Joe Paterno is 75, an age at which most football coaches have long since retired or been forced out of the business. It's an age associated with slowing down, not being "fired up," as many of his players have described him this week. It's an age when most men could not sprint down the field to accost an official, even if they wanted to.

But Paterno isn't acting his age these days, and that may be the main reason Penn State football is enjoying a resurgence in his 37th year as the team's head coach.

Following consecutive losing seasons, the Nittany Lions are 6-3 and ranked 19th going into Saturday's game against Virginia (6-3) at Beaver Stadium. Before 2000, they had finished with a losing record just once in 62 years.

"All of us were embarrassed with the things that happened here for a couple years," Paterno said. "But Penn State is still Penn State."

And Paterno is still Paterno.

The owner of 333 victories - most of any major college coach - doesn't take defeat lying down. He has been as enthusiastic, animated and emotional as ever - maybe more so.

He has railed against officials, saying poor calls cost his team in overtime losses to Iowa and Michigan. After the Iowa game, Paterno raced over to head referee Dick Honig, grabbed him by the back of the shirt and berated him. Following the Michigan loss, he had athletic director Tim Curley write a letter to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, calling for a review of conference officiating.

Those incidents prove that Paterno remains passionate about his job, but he rejects the notion that he has become more desperate or dyspeptic in his old age.

"You probably won't believe me, but I don't have the slightest idea what people are saying about me," Paterno said. "TV is TV. They're in the entertainment business and they're looking for controversy.

"When I was a younger coach, I was probably much more active in going after officials than I am now. … I don't swear at them. I try to explain to them how they could do a better job."

In fact, Paterno says, he is enjoying this season immensely.

"This has been a fun football team to coach," he said. "I think this is a great bunch of kids. They even laugh at my jokes."

They also play good football. The Nittany Lions have a powerful offense led by senior tailback Larry Johnson, who has rushed for 1,221 yards and 11 touchdowns, and a punishing defense that has allowed just one touchdown in the past three games.

"I think they look like most coaches would want their team to look," said UVa coach Al Groh, who estimates Penn State has eight to 10 seniors who will be picked in the NFL draft.

Despite three frustrating losses - all by a touchdown or less - Paterno and his players take some pride in reversing the program's downward spiral. The Nittany Lions were 9-0 and ranked No. 2 in 1999 when the wheels came off. They lost 14 of their next 17 games, including an 0-4 start in 2001, and critics began saying Paterno was too old to get the job done.

"He's like a god in Pennsylvania," said Virginia linebacker Rich Bedesem, who grew up in Holland, Pa., and went to Paterno's football camp. All of a sudden, however, the septuagenarian coach was looking all too human.

But Penn State rebounded, winning five of its final seven games last season, then made a major statement with a 40-7 shellacking of then-No. 7 Nebraska on Sept. 14.

The Nittany Lions are now bowl-eligible for the first time in three years. Though their Big Ten title hopes are dashed, they want to win out and produce the 19th 10-win season in Paterno's career at Penn State.

"It was sad to hear people say stuff about coach. They didn't know what was going on," said senior receiver Bryant Johnson. "It definitely feels good to hush up the naysayers, people who were saying he couldn't still do it."

If Paterno was motivated to silence his doubters, he isn't saying. But his players have noticed a fire in the old coach's belly, one that hasn't dissipated this week.

Already, Paterno has complained about the scheduling, saying it was "shenanigans" on Virginia's part that forced the game to be moved from its original Sept. 7 date. He was angry when he found out the Cavaliers had a bye week to rest before Saturday's game.

Some say Paterno also was annoyed when Al Golden left after one year on his staff to become UVa's defensive coordinator. And the coach hasn't forgotten that Virginia denied his team a bowl trip last season with a 20-14 victory in the final game.

"He said he was fired up about this game," said Larry Johnson. "He's been like that all season. He's pretty anxious getting this team back where it needs to be."

 

 

Schedule mixup favors U.Va.

By Dave Johnson
Daily Press

Published November 7, 2002

In nearly four decades as Penn State's football coach, Joe Paterno has seen plenty. But he doesn't recall having to reschedule a game because his opponent was contracted to play two teams on the same day.

Virginia's visit to Beaver Stadium was originally set for Sept. 7, but the Cavaliers had lined up another game on that date, at home against South Carolina on ESPN. After conversations between school officials, the U.Va.-Penn State game ended up being moved to Nov. 9.

That, Paterno notes, follows an off week for Virginia. His own team has played eight games in eight weeks, the latest an 18-7 victory against Illinois on Saturday.

"They had a week off and everything played out to their advantage," Paterno said during his weekly press conference. "There is nothing I can do about that. Obviously, with a week off and having some coaches (defensive coordinator Al Golden) who've had some experience with our staff and know a lot about us ... we have a tough game ahead of us.

"All I know is that I got a telephone call that Virginia had two games scheduled on the same date and they wanted to get out of our game and play it later in the year. I said, 'It's hard for me to believe that they would have a contract with two teams, but OK.' I let it go at that."

Paterno had used stronger language in his postgame press conference on Saturday, accusing the Cavaliers of "shenanigans" for "backing out" of the Sept. 7 game.

Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said both made-for-TV games were offered to Virginia through the ACC office.

Cavaliers coach Al Groh said he mostly observed the conflict.

"I didn't really immerse myself much in that issue," he said. "I just let everybody talk about it and say, 'You can do A or B.' The options were to play the game on this Saturday or play it next year. Obviously, both teams agreed to play it this Saturday."

 

 

Paterno irritated by switch
U.Va. moved game for S. Carolina

BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 07, 2002
VIRGINIA AT PENN ST.
SATURDAY: 3:30 p.m. ON THE AIR: TV - ABC; Radio - WRVA (1140), 3 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Virginia closed its 2001 football season Dec. 1 by beating Penn State 20-14 at Scott Stadium. Three days earlier, PSU had an- nounced the teams would meet again on Nov. 9, 2002, in State College, Pa.

Nearly a year later, Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno still is upset about what he called "shenanigans" by the Cavaliers, who originally had agreed to play the game in September.

"They had a week off, and everybody played out to their advantage," Paterno said Tuesday.

PSU (6-3) plays host to U.Va. (6-3) this weekend. This will be the ninth consecutive Saturday on which the Nittany Lions have played. The Cavaliers were idle last weekend.

The game originally was scheduled for Sept. 7 at Beaver Stadium. But then "South Carolina came into the mix," Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said Tuesday.

U.Va. learned from ACC officials last fall that South Carolina was interested in a two-game series, with the first game to be Sept. 7 in Charlottesville. Virginia reminded the conference, Littlepage said, that it was scheduled to play Penn State that day.

ACC officials responded by assuring Virginia that they would work with Penn State and TV representatives to "work out any overlap of the schedule," Littlepage said. "They gave us the green light to continue discussions and [strike a deal] with South Carolina."

Virginia did not, as some have suggested, "forget" that it already had a game scheduled for Sept. 7 when it set up its series with USC, Littlepage said.

"The University of Virginia was in a situation where we were asked by the ACC, or at least encouraged, to move forward with [South Carolina]," he said, "and the only way we were able to work the dates out was to have Penn State look at its open dates."

Sept. 7 was the only date that worked for USC this season, Littlepage said, and he doesn't recall his Penn State counterpart, Tim Curley, voicing concerns about the schedule change.

The winningest coach in the history of major-college football, however, hasn't hesitated to complain.

"I was not happy about it, and I'm not happy now," Paterno said Tuesday. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I'm assuming Virginia was honest about it. They played South Carolina at night and on television, which obviously was a big boost for their program. Now they have an open week, which doesn't light me up because we've gone through eight difficult games."

Littlepage, a former Division I head coach in men's basketball, said he empathizes with Paterno.

"In any situation like this, if you as a coach feel as though your opponent strategically has a better situation, certainly you're going to express that concern," Littlepage said.

U.Va.'s intent was not to gain a competitive advantage over Penn State, Littlepage stressed, but to fit another high-profile game into its schedule. In a game televised by ESPN, Virginia upset then-No. 22 South Carolina 34-21 at Scott Stadium.

Littlepage said that "if the shoe was on the other foot, we'd be voicing the same concerns" as Paterno. Al Groh, U.Va.'s second-year coach, probably wouldn't do so publicly, though.

"You've heard me say many times, my attitude on scheduling is, I play them whenever and wherever they give them to me," Groh said yesterday.

 

ACC coaches are open to time off
Wake gets 2 weeks to heal; Virginia catches heat for its schedule
GREGG DOYEL
Raleigh Bureau
 

Open dates were all the rage Wednesday on the ACC football coaches conference call, with Wake Forest's Jim Grobe explaining why his team has two straight off weeks -- and Virginia's Al Groh addressing an accusation of scheduling "shenanigans" from Penn State's Joe Paterno.

Grobe said he approved in the preseason a schedule that has the Deacons off the next two Saturdays because it beat the alternative, a mid-November game at Northern Illinois.

"I really didn't want to go to Chicago this time of year knowing the weather could be nasty," Grobe said.

These two weeks will allow three key Deacons injured Saturday against Florida State to heal for the next game, Nov. 23 against Navy: safety Quintin Williams, who is tied for second in the ACC with four interceptions; receiver Fabian Davis, who is second in the league in all-purpose yardage; and starting linebacker Jamie Scott.

None of the three could have played this week, Grobe said. The extra week also gives Wake Forest additional preparation time for Navy's unconventional spread-option offense.

Given those benefits, as far as open dates are concerned, Wake Forest is a winner. Penn State, on the other hand, is a loser -- having to face Virginia with the Cavaliers getting an extra week of preparation. Virginia was off Saturday, while Penn State was not.

Paterno has all but accused Virginia of lying about the circumstances that led to that discrepancy.

The Cavaliers' side of the story is they didn't realize until last year that they had scheduled two games on Sept. 7, 2002, when South Carolina came to town.

"It's awfully convenient," Paterno said Saturday after his team defeated Illinois. "Virginia ... with all the shenanigans of backing out of a game with us earlier in the year, ends up having a week off before we play them."

When he was originally informed of the mix-up last season, Paterno said he told Penn State athletics director Tim Curley, "It's hard for me to believe (Virginia) would have a contract with two teams."

Paterno backed off that statement Tuesday.

"I was not happy about it (then), and I'm not happy about it now," he said. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I'm assuming Virginia was honest about it ... (but) now they have an open week, which doesn't light me up because we've gone through eight difficult games."

Having Sept. 7 off agreed with Penn State two months ago, when the extra week of preparation helped it defeat Nebraska 40-7. The Cornhuskers weren't off Sept. 7.

As for Groh, he said he doesn't pay much attention to the shape of the schedule.

"My attitude on scheduling," he said, "is I play them whenever and wherever they give them to me."