You have got to let Joe coach for as long as he wants. You have to give Joe an extension for as long as he wants to coach. Penn State owes him that.
In 2005, everyone was calling for Joe to be run out of town. You know exactly what happened after that. I, for one, took great glee in calling those who wanted Joe to leave giant morons. I shall now do an encore performance, If you want Joe to be forced out than YOU ARE A MORON!
What are you going to do if PSU goes 12-0 or 11-1 during the regular season? Will you be so quick to stab a legend in the back? When you have the GREATEST COACH OF ALL TIME coaching your school give him a fucking lifetime contract and say : Thanks for Staying Joe!
This is a delicate, complicated period in PSU's storied history. The ultimate transition from the Paterno-era is a great challenge which will cement Spanier's reputation for all time. However, the time to make a decision on who will be the next head coach at PSU has not come yet.
Exit strategies suck. What advantage will PSU have a successor were named regardless of whether it is Schiano, Bradley, or THE CHIN!?!?!?! The answer? Nothing. None at all. Some might say, PSU would gain a head coach who can hit the recruiting trail like a sledge hammer as opposed to Joe, who this year only visited one recruit. The assistant coaches can get it done until Joe fully retires. Also, PSU should have 22 or so scholarships to give out in '09 which will be a true test of Joe's abilities.
When Joe finally leaves, and I hope it is in the exact way he wants, it will be a terrible sad day for Penn State football. Penn State was nothing before Joe Paterno. Nothing. If you think that it will be nothing but green pastures and easy going once Joepa is gone you are kidding yourself. In 25 years, Joe's voice will be played over the loudspeaker before the team takes the field. The crowd will go crazy. However, it will be nowhere near as good as seeing Joe run out of that tunnel.
GO STATE! GO JOE!
10 comments:
"Some might say, PSU would gain a head coach who can hit the recruiting trail like a sledge hammer as opposed to Joe, who this year only visited one recruit. The assistant coaches can get it done until Joe fully retires. Also, PSU should have 22 or so scholarships to give out in '09 which will be a true test of Joe's abilities."
So Pryor publicly stated that a big reason he didn't go to PSU is because of the uncertain coaching situation yet you claim that the assistants can get it done? We lose Walker and Shaw at key positions in recruiting, and Joe doesn't even visit.
Point is Joe gives no timetable for when he's leaving. Look at what happen with uber-recruit Mallet at Michigan. Coach changes and suddenly he's outside the new system. I can't blame a recruit for not coming into a program that they know will have a near future coaching change.
2005 was a great season, but it's been our only major bowl level season since 1994.
It seems as though your major beef is that Joe can't/isn't recruiting. To back that statement up you are citing the loss of Pryor, Walker, and Shaw. However, you seem to be selectively omitting the big-time recruits PSU has landed over the last few years: Williams (#1 overall), King, Devlin (swiped from Miami as Mich. swiped some from us this year), Bell. All these guys were big time recruits. PSU IS getting it done w/ Joe at the helm.
Wrong. We've had two good runs since 1986! Two! Your post would have made sense if written in 1996. Loyality to less talented players, unfair punishment on players, negatively affecting two players who could have had the Heisman, not visiting recruits, wanting outdated offenses, and the most important fact.....We're not that good and we CAN'T compete with THEM or OSU. Time to go Joe.
I seem to remember PSU being ranked #1 in 1997 and 1999. Two ten plus win seasons in 1999 and 2005, a conference title, and a Heisman trophy finalist.
Now, lets support Joe and the 2008 Lions and help them win a national title!
You said it JB- "a conference title." Don't we want a little more out of PSU? Can you imagine what a team like Florida or USC would have done to us the last couple of years? Or are we happy every 4 or 5 years when we have to have a senior stacked team in order to make a run? But please don't misunderstand me. I respect Joe and thought he was a great coach until the late 90's. It's then I believe, Jay came along, and the game started passing JoPA by.
Not being selective with big recruiting losses. Go back a season before that and we lost B. Green at the end to USC. What about V. Hazelton.
PSU will lose big recruits, everyone will. The big issue here is the way we lost them.
PSU knew Walker was 50/50 with us and ND and a Joe visit might have sealed the deal. Same with Shaw, he even gave us a verbal. These were 2 players at positions PSU needed, and no visit from Joe.
Pryor is different but this kid grew up in PSU's backyard. We had a depth chart and playbook that could accommodate him. We lost him be cause of the uncertainty in the coaching situation and our history of not developing QBs in the Jay Paterno era.
You can put music in your ears and pretend everything is ok, but until there is a succession plan, PSU recruiting is going to be lucky to tread water at a mid-pack Big 10 level. If things break badly and we have a recruiting drop-off like late 90's it's not impossible to see the losing seasons return
There is no reason PSU should not be at the same level as OSU & Michigan and the dominant program in the northeast. Sadly, we are far short of that today.
I just need someone to explain why a succession plan would be beneficial. If you did it, it would have to be Bradley. So, assuming it's Bradley, how is PSU benefited? Do we then land these kids? Wasn't Bradley recruiting them all anyway?
First, if we had a succession plan, we would have had a better shot at TP. If we had hired an actual QB coach, we probably would have landed him.
Look, Joe is old and his health is not too good. He's leaving soon, it's not a matter of if but when. Big time recruits know this. Big time recruits also have multiple options from other big schools with stable coaching situations. If you are an 18 year old stud, do you want to risk not fitting into the next coaches system? If PSU goes the internal route (which Joe already told Pryor was going to happen), why wait to announce? I think the reasons are 1) Joe want to coach till he's dead and 2) Joe wants Jay to be the successor even if Jay is fit to coach pee-wee football
You're delusional. We've been higher than 4th in the conference ONCE in the last decade. We're not even the distant third to Ohio State and Michigan, at least not regularly.
2005 had nothing to do with Joe and everything to do with Robinson.
A succession plan not only helps recruiting, it helps coaches stay at PSU. Who's not to say Bradley would leave if offered a head coaching job elsewhere? If a succession plan was in place for Bradley to take over, that's incentive enough for him and his assistants to stay.
I still believe part of the reason Sandusky left was due in part to Joe not stepping down.
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