The Penn Stater Magazine

The Best From Penn State’s Preseason Media Day

August 13, 2010 at 9:00 am Ryan Jones Leave a comment

Joe Paterno began the afternoon with a request.

“Please,” he said with a grin, “don’t ask me if I’m gonna die tomorrow.”

The more than 100 media members crammed into the Beaver Stadium press room laughed, both because we got the reference (the very first question Joe got at Big Ten media day a couple of weeks ago essentially asked if he expected to drop dead on the job), and because it was nice to hear Joe making light of the subject.

Photo by the Altoona Mirror

The undeniable fact is that, at 83 and after a rough few months of medical problems, Joe is not as spry as he was even last season. He seems to be moving and speaking a bit more slowly, and he seemed to admit as much when he acknowledged that he’ll no longer be doing his weekly Thursday night radio show. “It’s tough for me because I’ve got to come right off the field from practice,” Paterno said. “Sometimes, if we have a lousy practice and somebody wants to ask me something, I feel like telling them, ‘Go jump in a lake.’”

Joe said he “feels obligated to the fans,” but that he also feels he doesn’t have to do as much as he did earlier in his coaching career, when he was working hard to establish the program on a national level. He also implied that he continues to do less hands-on coaching than he used to, trusting his experienced assistants with more of the on-field instruction. All that said, there were plenty of reminders that Joe is still Joe, and he offered one when asked about delegating responsibility. Laughing, Joe replied, “I’m not sure if they’d agree that I’ve delegated more.” Clearly, he’s still the man in charge.

For another take, here’s a short video by Neil Rudel ’78 and Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror, who were among the dozens on the scene yesterday.

Among the day’s big talking points:

• By all accounts, including Joe’s, the quarterback position remains wide open. The Lions have some talented and confident kids vying for the position, but none of them are proven, and none have done enough to claim the job as their own.

• Asked about trying to make sense of the QB situation, Joe pulled out one of those reliable sepia-toned stories from his football youth. “(Vince) Lombardi grew up in the same neighborhood I did in Brooklyn, and I used to go down when he was an assistant coach with the Giants. Lombardi used to say all the time,’the part of coaching you have to do is, you have to get the right guy in the right spot doing the right thing at the right time.’ Now, what combination that is, you don’t know.”

• Uncertainty at quarterback aside, the offensive line remains Joe’s biggest concern. For his part, All-American candidate Stefen Wisniewski — last year’s starting center, back this season at what seems to be his more natural guard position — thinks he and his relatively unproven line mates will be up to the task. “I’m impressed with how we’ve looked so far — we’re picking up a lot of things fast,” Wisniewski said. “Having said that, we can’t just be ‘good.’ We really have to be great, and we’re certainly not there yet.”

You can read more about the o-line uncertainty here.

Jeff Rice ’03 offers one of the better round-ups of the day’s events here. And here’s the complete transcript of Joe’s press conference.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Joe Paterno, Penn State football. Tags: Altoona Mirror, Football Media Day, Neil Rudel, State College Quarterback Club.