Joe Paterno usually holds his press conferences apart from his players, so it was strange to see Penn State’s ageless football coach nestled between the broad shoulders of quarterback Daryll Clark and linebacker Sean Lee shortly after the Nittany Lions beat LSU 19-17 in the Capital One Bowl Friday.
It is rare that Paterno, on the podium, in the locker room, on the practice field or even taking one of his patented strolls across campus, is not the center of attention. But here he sat and smiled as Clark and Lee answered the majority of the questions about the Nittany Lions late comeback, the controversial penalty on LSU and, of course, the muck that came up to the players’ ankles.
But it quickly became apparent that, with these two players and probably the majority of the others on his team, Paterno didn’t have to say anything his words were already coming out of their mouths.
There are critics who follow the team every week and those who merely see quick television clips of an 83-year-old man slowly pacing the sidelines who say that Paterno doesn’t coach anymore, that he has lost the fire and wherewithal that made him one of college football’s greatest forces in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even the better part of the 90s. And in a certain sense, and even Paterno has admitted as much, they’re right. He has delegated more responsibility to his veteran and trusted staff each year.
But even if Paterno isn’t pressing all of the buttons anymore, it’s still his machine. The coaches, most of whom cut their teeth as players and then young assistants under Paterno, draw up schemes based around his coaching style. His players, the lessons of so many practices and
Paterno’s platitudes of football and life planted deeply in their brains, play the way he taught them to play disciplined, fundamental, patient football.
That’s how you get a quarterback who digested the play call on a third-and-goal situation against an aggressive LSU defense and decided that another play might work better. Paterno agreed with Clark, although a miscommunication meant the audible never took place. The point was that Clark knew enough about the game to earn the coach’s trust, which is the case with a good number of Paterno’s fifth-year seniors each year.
While Clark was taking Penn State down the field to set up Collin Wagner’s go-ahead field goal in the final minutes, the other guy sitting next to Paterno was looking at the clock and trying to determine exactly what the Tiger offense would try to do once it got the ball back. Lee knew that strategy would be determined by not only the number of seconds left on the clock but the number of timeouts LSU had remaining.
Again players thinking like coaches, paying attention to the little things, which allows the big things to take care of themselves. It’s one of Paterno’s oldest and most well-worn maxims but it’s also a tidy way to summarize his entire coaching philosophy. When players are diagnosing plays, it’s because the coaches taught them how. And those coaches have done it under the guidelines set down years ago by Paterno. They’re not always perfect; Paterno has his stubborn streaks, some of which have cost his team winnable games.
But very few times have the Nittany Lions lost when they’ve executed Paterno’s game plans. His formula can often be maddening, especially when his teams have the talent and versatility to win in other and more entertaining ways, but that formula has now been proven effective in parts of six decades. At its core is what all great coaches know and what any good coach should learn if you prepare your players well enough, and those players are good enough, they will be able to adjust and adapt, which are the necessary ingredients for winning in any sport, especially football. They’re also ingredients that will serve Paterno’s players well in their lives outside of football, which has always been his goal.
So if you’re going to compare the Joe of today with the Joe of 20 years ago, that’s fine. You might be disappointed. But realize that the Joe of today has helped put a little bit of the Joe of yesterday in each of the guys who wear a Penn State uniform.
Which is not a bad thing for any team.
NFR: Joe still knows
