Significance On 2009

It was about this time last year that I wrote "Significance On 2008".  It asked a lot of questions about what 2008 would mean for the future of Penn State football, and perhaps it's time to reflect on some of the same questions we were asking a year ago and evaluate what's changed since...

Here at BSD, where most of us follow PSU football on a daily basis, we're generally in our respective camps when it comes to what we think should happen with Joe at the end of the year..  There are the "Let him coach till he wants to quit or we tank" people, and there are the "Nudge him out so he doesn't hurt recruiting/Get a fresh start" people.  I happen to fall in the "keep him" crowd, however, both sides make valid points, and this post is not to argue about what SHOULD happen, but what might happen.

Now, as I said, we're all mostly decided on what we think, but I feel the vast majority of the PSU fan base is not.  A large segment of the PSU population goes with the flow, and gets caught up in the moment.   If you polled all Nittany Lion fans after the 2005 season and asked what they thought should happen to Joe, I bet you'd have found very different response than you would today.  Right now, the bandwagon is back at the "Hes just to old "stage, but I'm wondering if a 11-2 or 12-1 season would change things back to "the older the better!" yet again.

Never underestimate the bandwagon folks.  There are far more casual PSU fans than diehards (You know, the people who root for Pitt basketball?).  How much do you think the public opinion will affect the decision making at Old Main if Joe refuses to go out on his own, either after a Rose Bowl win, or after another 9-4 season?  Can Joe give himself another 2-3 if he wants them after a successful season?

In my opinion, I think the chances of Joe "going out on top" are slim to none, especially if Bobby Bowden keeps on coaching.  The more he sees himself outcoaching guys half his age, the more, I think, he'll want to stay around and go for the wins record.  And if he does give us a great season, I think administration will have no choice but to bring him back. Paterno will have the support of the fans, and he'll be holding all of the cards.

A year later, Bobby Bowden is on the verge of having a bunch of wins stripped, and Joe is fresh off an extension.  His health issues haven't slowed him down, and Penn State is putting together a great recruiting class.

It's all hunky dory ain't it?

But as the glow of the Big Ten Championship begins to fade and we edge closer to real football again, perhaps it's time to take off the rose colored glasses and start evaluating just exactly what the 2009 season will mean for Penn State football now, and in the future.

If 2005 was the year that saved JoePa, 2008 was the season that affirmed  him.  Even with what, for a man getting well into his 80s, were significant health issues, Joe gave Nittany Lion fans about as good a season as they could have hoped for the Rose Bowl notwithstanding.  In 2009, the spotlight, at least in these corners will shift off of JoePa, and onto the program as a whole.

So what are we looking for out of this Nittany Lion team?  What's at stake?  For my part, it's this:

1. Top Dog Status-A Big Ten title this season would give us three in five years.  While we have our own blowout in the Rose Bowl to explain, Ohio State has been bloodied and battered nationally the last three year by its failures in BCS games.  Back-to-back Big Ten championships would make the whispers of Ohio State's demise legitimate discussions if somehow Penn State is able to pull it off.  Perhaps the Nittany Lions could finally establish the dominance many had hoped for when they joined the conference in the early 90s.

2. Big Ten Respect-Championships are nice, but you can't win 'em all.  Most of us are hoping for another title and shiny trophy to brag about, but any realistic fan knows it's going to be tough and will enter the season cautiously optimistic that we can repeat, all while not being overly disappointed if we don't.  A more realistic goal is that the Lions have a season that ends in not only respect for the team, but respect for the conference.  We all know first hand what the Big 10's reputation has done to ours by extension.  Even though we've won three bowl games in four years with two of those coming against teams from the Big XII and SEC, we still get lumped in with the crappy package that is the Big Ten right now for that one loss on New Year's Day.

In 2009, Penn State needs to work to elevate the conference any way it can because it's in our best interests.  In conference play, that means not losing to teams you shouldn't  so national commentators can't say "they lost to _____________ for cryin' out loud!  It's just obvious the Big Ten is one big crap pile top to bottom!"  It also means winning the bowl game (since our OOC sucks).  Even if Penn State wins the Big Ten, if they lose the bowl game, they'll be dismissed as the hottest girl in a Woolrich Clothing winter coat catalog, and if they lose in another blowout in a BCS game, we'll spend the next five years trying to recover.

We're at the point where any solid bowl win, even if it doesn't turn out to be quite the one we were hoping for will be a very, very good thing, not only for our own reputation, but the reputation of the conference that has continuously screwed us with its ineptitude in big games.  If we can win the bowl game, maybe the media doesn't come down quite so hard on us and the Big 10, and discusses our merits as a team, not the weaknesses of our conference going forward.

3. Good Behavior-It's vital to this program that its players, especially the high profile ones, continue this recent string of relatively good behavior.  We've seen what the 2008 season did to supress talk of our legal troubles.  The garden variety DUIs of the last couple of weeks have been blips on the radar, and haven't gained near the attention they would have at this time last year.

A fight, or other big time offense would change all that in a heartbeat, and we'd be on the front pages for all the wrong reasons more than we ever have before.  We need to keep our noses out of trouble, or Joe will have Pedro Gomez on line one before he can blink. I can see it now...

  Hello?

  This is Pedro Gomez from Outside the Lines.  I need to speak with Joe Paterno

  Certainly, may I ask why?

  STEROIDS!

    What?

   STEROIDS!

  What?

  STEROIDS!

   Whatever, one moment.

   Mr. Paterno?  A Pedro Gomez needs to speak with you.  He's on line one.

  I told him I didn't need the grass cut!  We got Jay a Cub Cadet!  

   HELLO?

  Joe, I want to know about the steroids and I want to know about them NOW!

  Pedro you idiot!  You're supposed to be asking about Zug beating up Jonathan Baldwin!

   Zug beat up who?

  (Stares at phone)  Zug is not the man you're looking for.    You're looking for Pryor.  Move Along.

   (monotone) You heard him Pedro.  He's not the man we're looking for.  Move Along.

   STEROIDS!

(Click)

If you're still reading, I hope you get my drift.  If we so much as sneeze, the WWL will send its army of hatchet men after us, and the entire season will be consumed by stuff like this.  We've already seen a few guys get out of line, and it's time for the captains to crush it all before it becomes a problem again.

If you wanted to sum it up in one word, 2009 is all about our reputation.  It's about establishing who we are, for better, or for worse.  We can become the best program in the Big Ten, and earn the elite status we haven't seen in a long time.  If we can't be that, we can still be a very good program that has repaired it's image of "Success With Honor".  Or, we can revert to the chaos of 2006 and 2007. 

In 2009, we'll see what we choose...