ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 As his press conference ended at the Universal Orlando City Walk, coach Joe Paterno regarded the assembled media with a mischievous smile.
\n\u201cIf there\u2019s anything I can do, call,\u201d Paterno said, \u201cand I\u2019ll probably tell you no.\u201d
\nTwo weeks ago, Paterno said bowl games were fun for the players, but all work for him and his staff. Don\u2019t let him fool you.
\nPaterno, who has coached 37 seasons at Penn State, has been asked numerous times why he hasn\u2019t retired. His answer: What else would he do?
\nWednesday\u2019s Capital One Bowl, pitting Paterno\u2019s 10th-ranked Nittany Lions (9-3) against No. 19 Auburn (8-4), is just one more chance for Paterno to do what he loves \u2014 coach.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s obviously Mr. College Football, a guy who\u2019s still got more energy that any of us, and enjoys it \u2014 he enjoys it more and more every year,\u201d Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said.
\nFor Paterno, a bowl game is a chance to spend more time teaching his players the fundamentals he likes to emphasize, a chance to reinforce the message that hard work and dedication inevitably will pay off.
\n\u201cI think we\u2019re all in coaching to stay young, because you deal with young people,\u201d Tuberville said. \u201cAnd I think for him coaching, dealing with young people, keeps him feeling young, and I hope I can have that same attitude and energy that he has when I\u2019ve coached a few more years.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a wonder Paterno is still at it. Paterno, who arrived at Penn State in 1950 as an assistant to coach Rip Engle, turned 76 last week. And even though his 336 career wins and 20 bowl wins are more than any other major college coach, rival recruiters have been predicting Paterno\u2019s departure for decades.
\n\u201cI definitely remember when I was a senior in high school, going around the country to Nebraska, Florida State, Miami, and people were like, \u2019There\u2019s no way … Joe\u2019s going to last,\u201d\u2019 Penn State defensive end Michael Haynes said. \u201cHere it is five years later, Miami has a new coach, Nebraska has a new coach. Bobby Bowden\u2019s still there, but all the other schools I was looking at, Michigan State, all of them have new coaches now.\u201d
\nPerhaps that\u2019s because Paterno \u2014 while continuing to emphasize the basics \u2014 has been willing to reinvent himself as a coach. Two years ago, with Rashard Casey at quarterback, Paterno embraced the shotgun in order to take advantage of Casey\u2019s mobility.
\nLast year and during the early part of this season, Paterno spread out the offense and quarterback Zack Mills set numerous Penn State passing records. When defenses responded, Paterno went back to the run and tailback Larry Johnson set three single-game rushing records, becoming the first Penn State back to rush for 2,000 yards.
\nEven here, even with a career record in bowl games of 20-9-1, Paterno is looking to learn from Tuberville, his (relatively young) opponent.
\n\u201cTo be frank with you, I said to him, \u2019I want to talk to you about how you handle your bowl preparations,\u2019 because he got his staff together for a couple days without the kids being there, and they got a lot of work done,\u201d Paterno said. \u201cI want to talk to him about that.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s that attitude \u2014 and the energy to chase officials halfway across the field to protest a call \u2014 that continues to surprise those outside the program.
\nBut to his players, nothing has changed.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s still the same old Joe,\u201d defensive tackle Anthony Adams said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 As his press conference ended at the Universal Orlando City Walk, coach Joe Paterno regarded the assembled media with a mischievous smile. \u201cIf there\u2019s anything I can do, call,\u201d Paterno said, \u201cand I\u2019ll probably tell you no.\u201d Two weeks ago, Paterno said bowl games were fun for the players, but all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}