Joe Paterno: Coach or Figurehead?

The great Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that he begins paragraphs often with "so" or "listen" and ends them with "and so on" because things never really have a beginning or an end; they are simply the continuation of a process that has processing for millions of years.

So, I sat down to write my ridiculously early preview of Penn State last week, and I couldn't get past the first question. It's not so much that I couldn't skip it and move ahead, but the first question (Name one thing the media will harp on that is ridiculously off-base) brings up so many other questions that I felt as if I couldn't continue. I consulted Black Shoe Diaries, the Tyrannosaur of Penn State blogs, to help me out. See: I had the issue the media was going to harp on, I just didn't know the degree to which it was off-base. I have been educated. My email to BSD was simply this: How much actual coaching does JoePa still do?

The answer surprised me. My Penn State Schema had been so infected by the fashionality (it's a word, I promise - ed.) of "JoePa doesn't coach any more, he's just a fatherly figurehead" that I was actually shocked to hear that Joe still knows football - a shameful admission indeed. His age prevents him from being as awesome as Pete Carrol, or as rambunctious as Urban Meyer, but he still has an active roll. So don't be one of those college football fans who falls into that trap; be smarter than that. Here is the email I got from Mike at BSD:

"Joe is still very active in coaching, but probably not as much as the average coach. But you have to understand that everyone on his staff has been there 10, 15, 20, or even 25 years. They all think on the same page by now. They know what Joe wants, and he knows they know how to run the practices. During the season the assistant coaches put together the game plan, and then on Tuesday they meet and go over it with Joe. He adds things and makes changes. Then they go out and practice it. And of course Joe attends all the practices and adds his input, and from every player quote I've heard he is very active in practice getting in their face. Back in the spring they opened up a practice to the media and from this came a youtube clip that shows Joe running around the field and being very active. You could suggest this was all show for the camera, but it goes along with everything I hear about the program. Here is a link to the clip."

As you can tell from the clip, Joe still rocks out pretty hard at practice. My favorite part is him yelling at a player to "pull his shirt down." It definitely sounds to me like assistants have a far greater roll in the gameplan for particular Saturdays, but the Old Man still has final say. As for in game:

"During a game Joe lets his coordinators call the plays and substitutions. This is unusual as most head coaches these days prefer to take over the play calling duties for either the offense or defense for themselves. But I assure you Joe is very much into the game, and he will occasionally take over the play calling duties or make a substitution here and there to mix things up."

The fact that Joe doesn't wear a headset during games is probably what started the myth that he doesn't do anything. This fact is a little dubious, but you can't tell me he doesn't understand what's going on just because he's not wearing a headset. The man has damn near coached a game for every day that I've been alive (that's a gross exaggeration - ed.), so I lean towards the fact that the guy could have his eyes closed and be pretty in tune with the action. And I have specifically seen games in which Paterno will don a headset to start making decisions.

So is all peachy keen in Nittanyville? Maybe not. The idea that Paterno is actually hurting Penn State has to stem from somewhere, and Mike believes that place is called recruiting:

"Where Joe is really hurting us, in my opinion, is recruiting (that's what I just said - BB). He used to be able to walk into the living room of any kid in America and charm him into playing for him. He still has that charm, but he doesn't travel like he used to. I think it's a combination of his health and fame. For the past two years in a row he has come down with the flu in January. When every other coach is out there locking up the big targets for their class he's home in bed sipping chicken soup. And I think his fame really does discourage him from traveling as well. The man can't walk through an airport anymore without being stopped a hundred times for his autograph. He has said it's a big reason why he works out of the house more these days. When he's in the office he's constantly being interupted by friends and former players stopping in to say hello and introduce their kids or ask for an autograph for some sick aunt or something like that."

Sipping chicken soup? Or forgetting to drink water? Either way, in today's hyper-intensive world of recruiting, having the main man not available to travel is certainly a hindrance. However, the notion that Joe Paterno is not a coach, and just a figurehead needs to stop. Sure, the question of whether JoePa is actually hurting the program still looms; they've been only .500 since 2000. However, let there be no doubt that the man still runs practices, has final say on gameplans, and has - over the past several years - put out competitive teams running very modern schemes. He also puts the schallacking to his bowl game opponents, which is more than Lloyd Carr or Joe Tiller could (can) say at the end of their tenure, Cap1 bowl excluded. As I have said before, one of the ways I know it's Fall is when JoePa runs out onto the field. His prime may have passed by, but let's agree that - for this man - his twilight years far exceed what his peers may hope of becoming.

And so on.

And a hearty terrorist fist jab to Mike at Black Shoe Diaries for the input.