Tin Foil Hat Time

by BSD on Jan 17, 2008 9:16 PM EST

So there is a crazy rumor floating around out there that Joe Paterno is going to shortly announce he is retiring for health reasons. And taking his place is going to be Jim Caldwell, the current assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach with the Indianapolis Colts.


So the aliens can't read our thoughts.

The rumor started through an email from a Pitt fan sent to a local Pittsburgh radio station. Personally I think it's bogus, but here at BSD we report and you decide. It doesn't make sense to me that Caldwell would leave Indy with rumors swirling about Tony Dungy thinking of retiring. Caldwell is the assistant head coach and a very hot commodity in the NFL these days. His name is coming up for several head coaching vacancies since the regular season ended. Why a guy that could almost have his pick of several NFL jobs would want to coach in college is beyond me, but stranger things have happened.

What makes this almost believable is Caldwell's ties to the Penn State program. Caldwell coached the wide receivers and quarterbacks from 1986-1992. So would the wayward son be interested in giving up NFL fame and fortune to take a shot at coaching one of the best college programs in the nation? You tell me.

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What radio?

What station was it? I'm willing to bet some Pitt loser phoned it in to Fox 970, and Joe Bendel talked out of his ass for 3 hours about, despite the fact he hasn't watched a down of PSU football in his life. But hey, any chance to rip on JoePa in drive time is radio gold in Pittsburgh.

Gotta love yinzr nation.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by Adam Bittner on Jan 17, 2008 9:38 PM EST reply actions

Nevermind

Started on Junker and Crowe on ESPN 1250. Whats funny here is Junker is a Penn State guy. He does the postgame on the PSU radio network when Steve Jones and Jack Ham finish up.

If it was unsubstantiated, I have a hard time believing Junker would put it on the air.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by Adam Bittner on Jan 17, 2008 9:40 PM EST reply actions

No

Not going to happen.

Here is an ESPN story that should help explain why.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3202273

by JGuiher on Jan 18, 2008 6:48 AM EST reply actions

Closed door meeting

There is a closed door meeting today with Spanier, Curley, Paterno and possibly a member of the BOT. However, by the sounds of it, this is a normal occurrance given the status of Joe's contract (this meeting is typically held when Joe has one year left on his contract).

What is not know is whether there will be more than just a contract extension. Joe has been sick over the recent days and many are saying that it is the same illness that hit many of the players around the time of the Alamo Bowl.

Pat Devlin in '08

by Nick7 on Jan 18, 2008 7:38 AM EST reply actions

Caldwell...

came to the '05 coaching clinic at PSU and helped Michael Robinson with a few things while he was there. His presentation on Indy's play-action passing and Peyton's audibles were really informative, taught very well, and easy to learn. I would love for Caldwell to come to PSU.

That being said, I'm guessing someone confused Tony Dungy with Joe Paterno. Not sure how that could happen (they both wear blue and white on gameday?), but...

WE ARE...

by dmoney350z on Jan 18, 2008 10:11 AM EST reply actions

Rumors....

I wasn't really buying any of this until some well respected insiders on FOS took the time to say they are more than just rumors. Don't know whether that means Caldwell, but it sounds like there is a very good chance that something is up.

Get up State.

by speedomike02 on Jan 18, 2008 10:28 AM EST reply actions

This is interesting...

Makes for a good topic of conversation on a boring friday in January.

by carolinaeasy on Jan 18, 2008 10:54 AM EST up reply actions

First Step

The Board of Trustees is meeting with Spanier this week for their regular meeting. Joe's contract status is going to be a topic of discussion. I think first they need to hear from Joe how long he wants to coach. Maybe he wants to retire after 2008. If not, then they have to make the decision whether they want to offer him an extension or not. Right now, unless Joe has already told Curley and Spanier he's stepping down and they have already done a super secret coaching search I can't see how they can already have a successor in place. You can't do a search for a job that high profile without leaks coming out these days. So I say there may be some smoke about Joe retiring, but the whole thing about Caldwell being named a successor is bunk.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

Hail to the Lion!

by BSD on Jan 18, 2008 11:13 AM EST reply actions

The man with the plan...

...seems to be Spanier. He says he is pretty much certain that JoePa will coach teh 2008 season.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/342222.html

He goes on to discuss the hiring decision, which he presumes will be made primarily by Tim Curley and himself.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Jan 18, 2008 11:19 AM EST reply actions

here is what i don't get

does spanier (1) really take this laid back of an apporach, are they really treating this like "just another turnover situation" instead of the monumental coaching change that it is?

or, (2), are the people in charge really that good that they've been able to keep bloggers, reporters and the insiders from finding/leaking ANY news from info about this thing.

I'm going with (1). What is probably most troublesome to me is what seems to be a total lack of communication between those in charge and Joe.

by Big 11th on Jan 18, 2008 11:37 AM EST reply actions

obviously, y'all

should start tracking the flight records from University Park.

by PSUgirl on Jan 18, 2008 5:23 PM EST reply actions

Haha

Wheres that guy that wrote the thing about flying over Beaver Stadium cuz hes in the Air Force. Get on it!

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by Adam Bittner on Jan 18, 2008 10:22 PM EST up reply actions

Its all bullshit Mike

sPitt fans can't write so how could one possible send anything legible to a radio station to possibly report.
No sPitt fan that I know of owns a computer.

It's all bogus.

by PSUinTN on Jan 18, 2008 6:53 PM EST reply actions

Morelli!

Throws an INT in the W-E Shrine Game. Good to see he's consistent.

by RoaringSprings on Jan 19, 2008 8:09 PM EST reply actions

Heh

I am so glad that the Morelli era is behind us.

Enter Mr. Clark!

by MarkoMancuso on Jan 19, 2008 11:06 PM EST up reply actions

Make that two....

Morelli added a pick six in the second quarter. Now it's time to place bets on which NFL team gives him a free agent shot at training camp.

by RoaringSprings on Jan 19, 2008 11:20 PM EST up reply actions

morelli

I know we all bust on Jaypa, but Morelli has some major problems that I don't think any coach can fix. As much as I would like to see him succeed in the NFL I really don't think we would ever see anything different. The truth is I don't think I knew about the term pick 6 before he was our QB. Huzzah for change.

by PSU86 on Jan 20, 2008 8:11 AM EST up reply actions

I Was.......

thinking the same thing. Maybe the coaches did a wonderful job by getting us to 9-4 9-4 in two years with Morelli. But then again........they were the ones putting him in there.

Eric Watters Atlanta, Ga.

by ech2os on Jan 20, 2008 1:41 PM EST up reply actions

One thing to salivate over...

If Devlin is as good as he was predicted coming out of HS think of what Caldwell could teach the kid. We might actually produce a good pocket QB if that happens. Hmmm....

Unlikely but its fun to think about.

by bdizz on Jan 20, 2008 12:42 PM EST reply actions