STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The coaching legacy and goodwill that
Joe Paterno proudly built for five decades at Penn State are slowly
unraveling with each humbling loss.
The days of scanning the schedule for gimme victories are over --
just ask Big Ten foes Purdue and Northwestern, which this season
got their first wins in Happy Valley.
Paterno hardly needs his thick, smoky glasses to see he's losing
more than games: Thousands of seats at Beaver Stadium have been
empty at recent home games, and Paterno is no longer impervious to
the criticisms routinely reserved for coaches with lesser pedigrees
or without reputations as community patricians.
The message is clear -- and getting louder -- from the grumbling
dissenters: Joe must go.
Paterno, whose 341-116-3 record puts him second in career
victories in Division I-A behind only Florida State's Bobby Bowden,
is listening. Just don't expect him to decide his future based on
the whims of fickle fans.
"If you think that I am going to back out of it because I am
intimidated, you are wrong. If you think I am going to stay when I
think I am not doing a good job, you're wrong," he said. "Those
things have to develop, they have to evolve. Right now, I think we
can get this thing done and do a good job."
The numbers give little reason for hope.
The Nittany Lions (2-7, 0-6) are the only Big 10 team without a
conference victory entering Saturday's game at Indiana. They have
lost six consecutive games, including a school-record tying three
straight at home.
Penn State has four losing seasons in the last five years and
the senior class will leave having played in only one bowl game.
When asked about his future, the 77-year-old Paterno often turns
cantankerous, using his 55 years on the staff as a sense of
entitlement to dismiss his critics.
His determination (or stubbornness?), his unyielding belief (or
hope?), and his four-year contract that will keep him on the
school's payroll past his 80th birthday give little reason to
expect anyone but the coach affectionately known as JoePa will be
on the sideline next year.
"I am looking to get this program back to where it belongs and
if I can't get it done in a certain amount of time, I have to sit
back and say, 'Hey, turn it over to some other guy and can I help?'
That is the way it will be," he said.
And that time is?
"I haven't got the slightest idea," he said. "I don't see any
reason to say, 'I'm going to get out of here this year, next year
or what year.' I don't mean that to be cocky, stubborn or anything
like that. I am just trying to do what is right."
What to do with the fading legend seems to be tearing at the
conscience of the Penn State community. Has Paterno, who's donated
millions to the school in addition to his football success, earned
the right to decide his own fate? Or should university officials
give him a nudge out the door?
"I think he'll never step down," said former Penn State
defensive end Michael Haynes, now with the Chicago Bears. "Right
now we're having some issues, but it's still all fixable."
A bronze statue of Paterno greets visitors to Beaver Stadium.
There he is, looking spry, pointing toward the sky with his jacket
flown open and tie whipped around as if hit with the wind of
another brisk football Saturday.
Engraved near a wall of plaques to the left of the statue is a
Paterno quote: "They asked me what I'd like written about me when
I'm gone. I hope they write I've made Penn State a better place,
not just that I was a good football coach."
Those stories will certainly be written one day. But JoePa most
certainly can't like what's being written now.
One alumnus paid $350 to take out a half-page ad in the student
newspaper's gameday edition which read: "The talent's there. The
coaching is an abomination. TIME FOR JOE TO GO."
"All I was trying to do was focus some of the dissent I'm
hearing all over the place in a way people can see it and read it
readily," said Joseph Korsak, who said he's been to every home
game since 1967 except for a three-year stint in Ohio. "A few have
said it was too harsh, but the vast majority think it's time for a
change. A lot of people have been more forgiving and say he should
go out on his own terms. Whatever goodwill he's generated ran out
at the end of the '02 season."
The stadium holds over 100,000 people -- a small city, really --
and they want results or a new leader.
Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, who gave Paterno the
extension before the season, did not return repeated phone calls
for comment. However, students are beginning to speak out.
"I think we need a new coach, but I don't think we can fire
him," senior David Benson said. "He's done so much for the
university. But we need a change."
A recent column in the student newspaper even suggested -- gasp!
-- that Paterno is being selfish by staying.
"This season is simply about him proving to himself that he can
do what he could 20 years ago. There doesn't seem to be a great
concern for others," wrote junior Wade Malcolm.
Paterno said he receives support from fans and former players
who call and write him letters.
And so far, he's has shown he can still recruit: His latest
class was rated among the nation's top 20 by most analysts.
Still, the losing has affected his confidence.
"Yeah, I get shaky once in a while," Paterno said. "I would
be less than honest if I told you I didn't. That doesn't mean that
I lose faith."
Junior guard Charles Rush said Paterno tries to maintain a
family atmosphere to keep the team close.
"I wouldn't have expected to go through three losing seasons
like I have," Rush said. "For the football aspect, it's been kind
of bad."
Paterno publicly protects his players and assistant coaches from
criticism, focusing on how everything would have been different but
for a play here, a play there.
His supporters worry an unwanted footnote -- he stuck around too
long -- is being added to the JoePa's legacy.
"If he can't be remembered for his greatness, not only is it
sad, it's disastrous," former Penn State broadcaster Fran Fisher
said. "It's disturbing to me to see some of the people I've talked
to not be more understanding."
Paterno says he's still coaching because he doesn't want to
leave the team when it's down.
"I have never gotten into this thing for the glory or anything
like that. I never have," he said. "I don't need to take another
trip around the track."