Resharpening The Knives
Okay, Joe Paterno is going to be the head coach at Penn State for a few more years. It's good news in many ways -- he's fun to have around, the team seems to be on stable ground and just won a conference title, etc. -- but with the stubbornness of an 82 year old coaching icon comes the occasional slap of reality.
"I don't know whether it's important for the team (for him to be back on the sideline in 2009), but it's important for me," he said. "I'm frustrated. That was a very frustrating (year).
"You're up there (in the press box Thursday at the Rose Bowl), and there's ol' Pete Carroll barking at the officials and grabbing them and the whole bit, trying to get a break here and there. And I'm sitting upstairs. I'm not down there telling some of those guys, 'Hey, why don't you wake up?' "
Although most of the leg work has been done for Penn State's recruiting class, Paterno hopes he can go on the road in the next several weeks. He was recovering from his sideline collision at Wisconsin during the winter of 2006-07 and from pneumonia last winter, which prevented him from visiting recruits.
"We'll have to see," he said. "Doc (team doctor Wayne Sebastianelli) is not sure he wants me up and down in the little airplane because of the blood-clotting (factor)."
So it's important for Joe to be on the sidelines (check that, it's important to Joe), but when it comes to visiting recruits in their homes...not so much.
How did he get to Pasadena, stage coach?
We have to ask, how substantial is this unwillingness or inability to travel? There are plenty of highly regarded recruits left in our region, most notably Jelani Jenkins, a five-star linebacker in Maryland who could be swayed by a rare Paterno in-home visit. I would be more than happy to chauffeur him around the mid-Atlantic, with hourly stops to get out and stretch. Seriously. I'm available for that job any day.
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Comments
If he can't, he can't
But I agree that it seems odd that he could travel across the country in a plane but couldn’t make a few short plane trips to visit recruits. I mean, the guys we’re recruiting aren’t any further than Virginia, which is, what, an hour plane trip? This is my biggest frustration with Paterno.
by speedomike on Jan 5, 2009 10:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, it's really the *one* thing to complain about.
Maybe a little plane is different than a larger plane for blood clotting issues because of the pressurization. Who knows. Still, recruiting is part of the job description — a big part of it — and as we found out against USC, it’s one thing to win a depressed Big Ten conference without any other serious contenders, and quite another when you venture out to play the big boys.
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Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Jan 5, 2009 3:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Visits
I bet he just doesn’t want to make any promises. Keep expectations low. I bet he at least visits Jenkins, and hopefully he gets to Stokes and Brown.
by psuphiman80 on Jan 5, 2009 4:18 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Even still
He couldn’t go in a car? I’m sure there’s plenty of cash in budget to get him in a nice enough car with plenty of leg room. I really think he just doesn’t want to go out and do it anymore. Notice how many verbals we got last spring during that period when they changed the rule so that coaches couldn’t make visits? Crazy to think that actually was a big advantage for us.
by speedomike on Jan 5, 2009 4:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Astrovan
Can’t we get him in some sort of hippie shag wagon. he can sleep on the bed in the back and LJSR or JayPa to drive him.
PSU Softball
by QBsneak12 on Jan 5, 2009 5:38 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I hate to give it away, but here it is.

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Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Jan 5, 2009 5:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Is that JayPa in the passenger seat?
Sorry – it was there, had to do it…
by IcersGuy on Jan 5, 2009 6:04 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Sadly, it leveled the playing field.
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Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Jan 5, 2009 5:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Justin Brown
It will be interesting to see how things play out with Brown. It’s down to us and Rutgers. Rutgers top WR, Kenny Britt, has thrown his name into the NFL draft. Now we have a better QB situation than Rutgers does, but Schiano can do in home visits and JoePa doesn’t have that ability to do that at this point. We are losing our top 3 options at WR, but we typically play the players that have been around the longest (2005 was the exception to the rule, plus we had down years before than so we did not have many recruits worthy of starting besides the Triplets.)
We can’t afford to lose out on Brown. Two of our four WR recruits (if you count The Drake as a WR) have torn ACLs and will either Grey Shirt or Redshirt, Devon Smith is about an inch short of not being able to ride any rides at Hershey Park. So it is important that we get Brown.
If we lose Jenkins, while it hurts, we have more LBs than playing time anyway. We get LBs every year so it is not as big of a loss as we think. Florida is the front runner and is playing for the National Championship…he is theirs to lose.
PSU Softball
by QBsneak12 on Jan 5, 2009 11:02 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
With Devlin gone Drake will probably be the third string QB, don you think?
by millzners on Jan 5, 2009 11:29 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Drake
He will be a WR. He may get a shot at QB but he will be a WR.
by psuphiman80 on Jan 5, 2009 12:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
What?
I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear all of the bitching with my shiny Big Ten Champs trophy in my ear.
Hey, I wish we had nothing but future NFL Hall of Famers on the roster. Really. But at the end of the day, PSU will do things PSU’s way. If you don’t like it, I hear Pitt has cheap seats available for the game – and if you ask nicely, Wanny will let you play QB.
by Tailgate Shogun on Jan 5, 2009 7:48 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Yeah man
I might be slightly more irked if this were any other coach, but Joe is Joe and he’s coming off surgery, so I’m willing to be patient.
by psuphiman80 on Jan 6, 2009 1:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
have LJ SR.
recruit in the maryland/nova area. he dominates.
World F#$king Champions
by psudrozz on Jan 6, 2009 2:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Crap, there's more
He is already the lead guy for Jenkins I believe, but a HC visit can really boost the chances with a recruit.
by psuphiman80 on Jan 6, 2009 2:41 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah, that's the real issue here.
It’s a game of difference makers, and Jenkins would probably be a three-year starter at LB. LJ Sr. is great, but he doesn’t walk in the front door with the same cache as the head coach at Florida who is playing for a national championship.
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Mr. Bob Dobalina
by Run Up The Score on Jan 6, 2009 3:15 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Exactly
We’ve got our assistants going up against head coaches. It’s really just annoying. Serioulsly Joe-2, maybe 3 visits this month. Jenkins, Brown. and maybe Stokes.
by speedomike on Jan 6, 2009 6:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

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