| FTBL Trouble in Happy Valley

[Guest]

http://tidesports.com/article/20080730/APS/807300886

Maybe Joe Pa has lost the touch he had with his players. I saw a feature on "Outside the Lines" over the week end that talked about how he'd lowered his ecruiting standards to get them back to competitive status in the Big Ten.

 

[reger60]

Okay, I'm not a Paterno fan. Personally, I think his best days are behind him -- way behind him. But this snippet of an article does not indicate that Paterno has "lost touch" any more than you can say that Saban has lost control of his team.

As far as Paterno lowering his recruiting standards, you have to remember that Penn State didn't start playing in the Big Ten until 1993. Undoubtedly, things have gotten progressively more competitive both in recruiting and on the field. The school and the conference, as well, have a say in recruiting standards.

 

[imported_porkchop]

I saw this article the other day. All in all, IMHO, I would just say that...... no program needs an 81 year old head coach running things. I don't care how young at heart Joe thinks he is, he's 81 and quite frankly, I don't think he has any business out there.

I kinda feel for the PSU people because it seems like they've been caught between a rock and a hard place for years now with Paterno. They can't really fire him, but he won't leave either. Year after year they keep hoping he'll finally step down, but he never does.

I think Paterno has been incredibly selfish during this whole fiasco that has gone on for the last 10 years or so.

 

[Guest]

In his part of the "Outside the Lines" story, he really seemed out of it. About 1/3 of his team was arrested or implicated in that brawl at the apartment complex, and his take seemed to be that this could happen to anybody.

There is no doubt that if he left now he would be regarded as one of the all time great coaches, but the last ten years have not added anything good to his legend.

 

[TerryP]

Okay, I'm not a Paterno fan. Personally, I think his best days are behind him -- way behind him. But this snippet of an article does not indicate that Paterno has "lost touch" any more than you can say that Saban has lost control of his team.

As far as Paterno lowering his recruiting standards, you have to remember that Penn State didn't start playing in the Big Ten until 1993. Undoubtedly, things have gotten progressively more competitive both in recruiting and on the field. The school and the conference, as well, have a say in recruiting standards.

This is worth watching...

OTL reports

 

[rammerjammer]

Put your conspiracy theory hats on and follow me on this one.

Do you think that the powers that be at PSU have made bed fellows or whatever with the ESPN folks in order to put pressure on JoePa to force him to retire?

Stranger things have happened. Obviously this is a stretch, but if by chance someone at PSU has a connection or heck maybe someone at ESPN is a PSU grad that is wanting to see change. Who knows, but I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if something underhanded like this was taking place in order to make it uncomfortable for Joe and easy on the University to get him off the sideline and retired. ;sus ^^CO

 

[reger60]

Okay, I'm not a Paterno fan. Personally, I think his best days are behind him -- way behind him. But this snippet of an article does not indicate that Paterno has "lost touch" any more than you can say that Saban has lost control of his team.

As far as Paterno lowering his recruiting standards, you have to remember that Penn State didn't start playing in the Big Ten until 1993. Undoubtedly, things have gotten progressively more competitive both in recruiting and on the field. The school and the conference, as well, have a say in recruiting standards.

This is worth watching...

OTL reports

Thanks for the link Terry. I had not seen this before. This certainly fills in some gaps in the story.

 

[imported_porkchop]

Put your conspiracy theory hats on and follow me on this one.

Do you think that the powers that be at PSU have made bed fellows or whatever with the ESPN folks in order to put pressure on JoePa to force him to retire?

Stranger things have happened. Obviously this is a stretch, but if by chance someone at PSU has a connection or heck maybe someone at ESPN is a PSU grad that is wanting to see change. Who knows, but I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if something underhanded like this was taking place in order to make it uncomfortable for Joe and easy on the University to get him off the sideline and retired. ;sus ^^CO

My initial thought was that PSU was attempting to use the media in a play on JoePa.