Few coaches in the pantheon of sports will ever reach the status Joe Paterno and Bear Byrant have obtained. Their successes, so often repeated that it has become cliche to state them, almost to suggest that the numbers plastered on t-shirts and magazines are as well-known as the laws of physics. Reminding the fan base of Paterno’s four hundred and two victories or Bear Bryant’s six national titles is like mentioning that gravity keeps us planted on the ground. The expectation of success founded and created by these two great men permeates both the Penn State and Alabama programs and has bound them together in a greater story. One cannot speak of the rich history and tradition of one school without a nod to the other. It is this bond that makes the Penn State and Alabama rivalry one of the greatest in sports.

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Today we're continuing our series on the history of Penn State quarterback battles. So far, we've covered 1970 and 1980. Now we're taking you way, way back, to when Joe Paterno was a mere mortal assistant coach under Rip Engle. We present, Penn State's quarterback controversy of 1964...

In the grand scheme of things, nothing was particularly special about Penn State's 1964 season. Coming off of a 7-3 record the year before, 1964 would mark the second to last year of Rip Engle's 16 year stint as Penn State's head coach. And even though the Joe Paterno era hadn't even begun, he was already in the thick of some of the program's biggest decisions.

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When Penn State played Michigan for the last time in the Big Ten's non-divisional era a couple of weeks ago, it was hard to get too worked up about the end of the "rivalry" between the two schools as we know it. Yes, existing in separate divisions means Penn State and Michigan will see each other less, but they already rotated off one anther's schedule's under the outgoing scheduling format. The difference now will be only one or two games per decade.

Things are different with Michigan State and the Battle of the Land Grant Trophy, though. The Spartans have been on the Nittany Lions' schedule every single year since Penn State entered the conference and the game is traditionally played as the last of the season for both teams. While administrators have tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to force a rivalry between the two schools, the game has no doubt become an end-of-the-season event that many people at least look forward to a little bit.

Unfortunately, the annual renewal of the game for the Land Grant Trophy will be a casualty of divisional play as Penn State and Michigan State will be in separate divisions when Nebraska joins the league next fall. And while, as Penn State fans, we might not be too upset about that, it's worth a look back into the great moments of this rivalry that wasn't before we bid it adieu. 

5. 1994: Penn State 59-Michigan State 31

In the first Battle for the Land Grant Trophy in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions dominated Sparty in their final tuneup for the upcoming Rose Bowl. Throughout the week, many figured that Penn State Heisman candidate, running back Ki-Jana Carter, needed about 200 yards to make a final statement to voters, but by garbage time, he only had about 150. After he and his teammates begged coach Joe Paterno, Carter finally got one more carry. He took it 60 yards for a touchdown to go over 200 yards on the day for an exciting moment in a dud of a football game.

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(Ed. - In what has become somewhat of an annual tradition around here, enjoy this BSD classic on the history between Penn State and Ohio State.)

The year was 1912. Penn State was coming off of an 8-0-1 season in 1911, their greatest record to date. They had made the jump from a respectable team to an eastern power that was beating traditional eastern powers like Pitt, Penn, and Cornell. Under the direction of head coach Bill Hollenback Penn State was facing unprecedented success. But Hollenback had bigger ambitions. He wanted to take Penn State from being an eastern power to a national power. To do that, he looked west.

Ohio State was set to join the Western Conference (which would later become the Big Ten Conference) starting the following year. While they had enjoyed several successful years in the Ohio Athletic Conference, many questioned their worthiness to join the Western Conference due to the poor level of competition. Ohio State coach John Richards felt that a win over an eastern team would give his team more prestige and quiet their critics.

So on November 16, 1912 the two schools of Penn State and Ohio State met for the first time in Columbus, Ohio not realizing how intense this rivalry would become nearly 100 years later.

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Enjoy part one here.

Yesterday Lou discussed this years Penn State team, NHL, Icers, Michigan State, and Nebraska.  Today he'll cover great Penn State books/authors and also technology in this generation, have kids really stopped reading newspapers?

QBsneak12: You seem to be the most prolific writer of books about Penn State football.  Besides your own, what other books would you recommend to BSD readers?

LP: There are so many good books out there, and some of the best are out of print.

If readers want to know more about the complete history of Penn State football, Ridge Riley's Road to Number One is the definitive book that not only covers the beginning of Penn State football in 1881 - yes, 1881, not 1887 - but also is a succinct overview on the birth of college football and the rules and changes in the game from the mid 1800s to 1975 when Ridge's book was published.  The book was fundamental in the research of my Penn State Football Encyclopedia.  Ridge was a long-time Penn State alumni executive and a really good guy, who, ironically, had a fatal heart attack in Joe Paterno's kitchen a few days after the1975 Sugar Bowl as he was gathering material for the weekly Alumni Football Newsletter he created in 1938.  John Black, who succeeded Ridge in writing the newsletter - and still does - also helped finish Ridge's book.

There are three books that I would recommend for a deeper insight into football in the Paterno years, and all for specific reasons.

For the Glory by Ken Denlinger may be the best book ever written about Penn State football because of its exclusive, candid and incisive behind the scenes look at how the football program really works.  Denlinger, a one-time Daily Collegian and Washington Post reporter, spent five years following the recruitting class of 1992 that would up being the last Penn State team to play as an independent.  Unlike my latest book, Game Changers: The Greatest Plays in Penn State Football History, or the What It Means to Be a Nittany Lion, that I wrote with Scott Brown, Denlinger's book is not one of those gung-ho; publications that fans crave.  Paterno never has given any writer the access he gave Denlinger and Denlinger didn't sugar coat anything.  The warts are there as well as the Kool-Aid but he is fair and honest all the way. 

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Well after watching BSD almost melt down yesterday, I thought this would be the perfect time to spoil you with another Lou Prato visit to BSD.  Legendary Lou took some time (a lot of time) answering some questions we had for him.   Also, be sure to check back tomorrow for part two.

It's always nice to get the historical prospective on all things Penn State and Lou did an excellent job with that.  Yesterday, I took a look at this seasons loss differential (to date).  We'll revisit that topic once the bell sounds on the 2010 season.  For now, enjoy the conversation with Lou. 

QBsneak12: We are at the halfway point of the 2010 season.  Give us a historical perspective of how this season compares to years past, particularly since Joe Paterno has been the head coach.

Lou Prato: I started thinking about this a couple of days before the Illinois game, believing the outcome could set the tone for the rest of the season.  If that's now true, then 2010 will not turn out well.  Most BSD readers lived through the worst years of the Paterno era --2000-01 and 2003-04.  Judging by the internal turmoil and sniping that became public in the aftermath of the embarrassing loss to Illinois, 2010 looks like it will be much worse than we all anticipated.

At 3-3, this is by far a better start than any of those 2000 teams, and even better than Paterno's 1983 squad, which, like the 2001 team, lost its first three games of the season (with the 2001 squad also losing a fourth straight before a win).  What's troubling is the way this team was beaten by a so-so Illinois team.  Sure, there were too many key players missing because of injuries, which meant the use of a lot of inexperienced players.  But there seemed to be a lack of desire, a lot of confusion and downright ineptness on the field in the play calling and execution of the plays.

With the caliber of opposition ahead, it may be difficult for this team to even with the minimum of three more games to get a lesser bowl game.  However, the challenge is there, if the players and coaches develop the right attitude on and off the field.  The 1983 squad reversed the losing, winning seven of the next eight games, tying Pitt and then beating Washington in the Aloha Bowl.  There is even a better example of a team overcoming adversity and heavy criticism from the fans and the media in Penn State's 1964 team, which also lost three straight at the start of the season and four of its first five.  The next week, the '64 Lions upset No. 2 Ohio State, 26-0, in Columbus, won their last four games, finished No. 14 in the country, won the Lambert Trophy as the best team in the East, and rejected a bowl bid because the players said they had nothing else to prove.

Then there was the 1988 team.  They were 4-2 at the halfway point, and then lost their last five games to give Penn State its first losing season in 50 years.  There were a lot of similarities between the makeup of that team and the 2010 squad - with a lack of leadership, erratic play on the field, injuries, and a true freshman quarterback in Tony Sacca.  Joe Paterno called the season "the Hellfires of '88."  We can only hope 2010 will not become "Hellfires Part 2."

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BSD - Whenever we come across an event where we struggle to put it into historical perspective, the guy to turn to is renowned Penn State football historian Lou Prato. In the wake of Saturday, a lot of people have called the loss to Illinois "the worst homecoming ever". To offer some perspective, Prato shares his thoughts with us in this guest post on the worst homecoming losses of the Joe Paterno era. Enjoy. (Or go kick chair, or punch a wall. We all deal with this kind of stuff in our own special way.)

History was made last Saturday when Penn State’s embarrassing 33-13 loss to Illinois joined the list of the worst All-Time Homecoming games of the Joe Paterno era. One of Paterno’s greatest players, Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham, who has been the game day analyst for Penn State’s radio network since 2000, summed it up best at the end of the Saturday’s broadcast. It went something like this:  "In all the years I have been watching Penn State play, I have never seen a worst performance on offense and defense."
 
One can almost be sure anyone inside Beaver Stadium or watching the game on ESPN would agree with Ham.
 
How does this humiliation rank with other Homecoming games since 1996?  Readers can do their own ranking, but here is one person’s list in chronological order:  

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