After months of speculation Joe Paterno has a new contract to go with that new hip of his. Penn State has decided to keep Paterno, the winningest college football coach of all-time, as the head coach of the Nittany Lions through 2011. Both parties are aware that this contract could very well be shortened or lengthened depending on future circumstances.It is very hard to imagine Penn State without JoePa at the helm but he is turning 82 on Sunday and that is quite old. Every year Paterno spends more and more time in the booth and not on the field and he leans heavily on his assitants to do a bulk of the coaching. If he makes it through the 2009 season it will mark his 60th season as a coach at Penn State.
With that said Penn State won the Big-10 this year and has a chance to take down USC in the Rose Bowl. They were on a collision course with the BCS championship game until a close game loss to Iowa.
Apparently JoePa is scared he will go the way of the great Bear Bryant who passed away just 28 days after stepping down as the head coach of Alabama at age 69.
1 comment:
I don't see anything wrong with JoePa sticking around at Penn State. It'd be one thing if they sucked (like Florida State), but after a rough first few years of this decade, they've been consistently good over the past few years.
I think that mainly has to do with, as you say, JoePa leaning more on his assistants. And for Penn State, that's probably a good thing.
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