Joe has told Zook he is going to do everything he can to keep LJSR. Zook is prepared to pay whatever it takes to get him, but this isn’t really about money. It’s about LJSR wanting to advance his career and one day becoming a Div IA head football coach. That’s the career path he has set for himself. So I think Joe is going to have to promote him and give him more responsibility if he wants to keep him.

Why wouldn’t Joe want to do that (promote him)? I could be way off base, but I really think that what the AD office and/or Spanier agrees or doesn’t agree to doesn’t mean d**k. Yeah, they control the purse strings, but they have to know that they’re getting a bargain when it comes to the football program. They want to keep the program relevant and part of making sure that happens would involve NOT having to replace a valuable team member like LJSr.

The only thing is you can’t make an LJSr promotion happen w/o a TB promotion. The post about Asst. HC makes a lot of sense. The question then becomes what does Joe think about that? And does it just delay the inevitable of LJSr leaving to become HC somewhere else. Especially if any reality of there being an Asst. HC Bradley makes it that much more evident that he (LJSr) is not the heir apparent.

At this point, I just wish we could get the suspense over with and find out if he’s staying or leaving.

If LJSr doesn’t become HC when JoePa leaves (TB is obvious choice) we will need to start over with that position in 1-3 years anway. So be proactice, find a young dline coach that will hussle and work and in 3 years, we won’t have lost any recruiting ground because this new coach will have been in place and developed a realtionship with the 2009 HS Sophomores. It makes sense. Zooker is throwing crazy money out there, money that we aren’t going to be able to match with out bumping up TB.

Maybe he plans on announcing after signing day…that would be the nice thing to do. Have our class signed up and then leave for Zook.

LJ Sr (in all reality) doesn’t believe he’s going to jump TB for HC of PSU. TB’s been on the staff for 30 years. He’s worked his way up and earned every promotion. Likewise he’s earned this hypothetical promotion. It is possible, but it isn’t likely.

LJ Sr. simply wants to step into the spotlight, as a young and super-talented DC on a defense-oriented top-tier team.

Let’s probably also assume, that LJ Sr. could easily have his sights on the NFL. He could go from NCAA DC to an NFL job quite easily. He could bounce from NFL back to a D-1A HC spot just as easily after that.

This whole thing isn’t about the next HC of Penn State. That’s too far off, and too speculative. This whole post was about securing LJ Sr. and improving our program in the most simple and natural way for the next 3 years: promote the two brightest stars under Joe Paterno. Only then can these guys expect anything to happen in 3 years anyway — it shows ambition, gives them more responsibility, and allows them to take advantage of the success of PSU.

It’s by no means a bad plan, but I really don’t see any chance of keeping LJSr at this point. He’s been offered a much better position at Illinois, and any offer Penn State makes is clearly reactionary to that. LJSr’s kids have gone through the program, moved out of town, and there’s just not a ton of reason for him to stay at this point aside from a pure loyalty standpoint. Plus, I think it would be wrong to throw Bradley to the side and “create” a new position for him… I’m sure Fran Ganter just loves being the director of football operations.

If he wants to be a head coach, he has a much better chance at Illinois as opposed to Penn State. I would imagine Zook’s job security is rapidly declining, especially after this year’s record. If a head coach is what he wants, he’s positioning himself in the right place for succession.

Yes, he’s a great recruiter, and great at developing linemen. Let’s see him have the opportunity to be a DC out there. The bottom line is it hurts to let him go from a recruiting standpoint, but there’s a lot of great coaches out there ready to take his place. I don’t see this as the-sky-is-falling apocalypse that some people are making it out to be.

I’m for it…have read / heard & discussed that analogy by others as well.

Karma: in the end, does the PSU Nation actually ‘thank’ Zook for making/(forcing) PSU into shoring-up our future coaching lineage? My gut feeling: he stays and the dividens are plenty!!!

If you want to keep Coach Johnson, I don’t have any better ideas.

the better it is for PSU IMO. I think the longer it drags out, that gives me hope that PSU is working on keeping him with some sort of package, raise, or promotion. He could have accepted the job yesterday if I’m correct but he hasn’t yet. With each day the odds go in PSU’s favor.

I’ve been participating in a group fasting at church for 4 days now and I’ve been praying about different things here and there. I’m sure the Good Lord won’t mind if I include a little prayer for LJ Sr!

As grown men do.