JoePa survived criticism; Bowden won’t

Go ahead and give Joe Paterno the all-time Division I wins record. Bobby Bowden is finished. Paterno survived when Penn State administrators tried to show him the door in 2004, but don’t expect Bowden to do the same. Florida State officials are trying to oust Bowden, whose team dropped to 2-4 with Saturday night’s 49-44 loss to Georgia Tech. The Seminoles have all kinds of problems and appear to be on their way to a 6-6 season at best. Florida State used to be one of the top-five teams in the nation every year. Now, the Seminoles are the fourth-best team in their own state behind Florida, Miami and South Florida. JoePa entered the year with a one-game lead on Bowden in the wins race, 383-382. That lead is now up to four with Penn State’s 5-1 record. The NCAA is trying to strip Bowden of 14 victories because of a cheating scandal, which would essentially end the contest between Paterno and his friend. Even if Bowden somehow wins his appeal, which is unlikely, it would be nearly impossible for him to catch JoePa this season. And with the way things are imploding down in Tallahassee, there probably won’t be a next season for Bowden… Florida State already has a successor in place in offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. If he’s not the head coach by the 2011 season, the university will owe him $5 million because of a clause in his contract. There’s no reason, with the team playing so poorly and Bowden serving as a distraction, that the school shouldn’t part ways with him after this year. It’s a shame for Bowden, but it’s also time for him to go. – Altoona Mirror

Penn State’s Joe Paterno not sure if he’ll be able to run onto the field

If only more of Joe Paterno’s Penn State players were as hale and hardy as their octogenarian leader, who underwent another surgical procedure on Nov. 6, 2006. That was to repair a tibial plateau fracture (top of the shin bone) and torn medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee after being run over in a sideline collision at Wisconsin 2 days earlier. “I’m relieved because I can do some things now that I had trouble doing the last couple of years, particularly on the practice field,” Paterno said yesterday during a teleconference with ever-inquisitive members of the media. “I’m able to get around. “Last year I had somebody drive me around on a golf cart. I feel much better about everything. Hopefully it won’t be, ‘Paterno is doing this, Paterno is doing that,’ and we can concentrate on our football team.” … “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to run on the field,” Paterno said, as much of a concession to age as he’ll ever make. “I’ve been trying to do a little jogging out there on the practice field.” – Philadelphia Daily News

Leach Wants Out at TT, Bradley Wants in at Penn State?

Texas Tech

A Lubbock radio station is giving out “Keep Mike Leach at Tech” shirts this week, and many worry that this cult hero of a coach could bolt for Clemson, Washington or one of the many other openings expected in the off-season. One reason for the concern is that Leach has just two years remaining on his contract, the shortest length of any coach in the Big 12. Leach has gone 73-37 in his nine years here, and with an 8-0 record this season, he has secured the program’s ninth consecutive bowl berth. Coaches with that kind of track record typically have at least a five-year contract cushion. For instance, the contract for Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops expires in 2013, and Mack Brown’s deal at Texas ends in 2016. Leach’s expires in 2010, which opposing coaches can use against him in recruiting. He is earning $1.75 million this year, meaning he is not among the five highest-paid coaches in the Big 12. The situation has raised eyebrows around college football, where Leach is respected for his quirky but effective style. His pass-based system has helped turn quarterback Graham Harrell into a Heisman Trophy contender. Harrell leads the N.C.A.A. Football Bowl Subdivision in passing yards with 3,147. The system also helped Michael Crabtree evolve into one of the nation’s most productive receivers. He is tied for first in the F.B.S. with 14 touchdown catches. By whipping the ball around the field and making defenses dizzy with his team’s aerial antics, Leach has thrived in a place with a small local recruiting base and little history of top-line football success. That is why other coaches are puzzled that Tech has not bent over backward to keep Leach. – New York Times

Penn State

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has been Penn State’s stand-in coach the past month while an injured Joe Paterno watches from upstairs. But will Bradley still be the man patrolling the sideline if the 81-year-old Paterno retires? Former Nittany Lions’ All-American linebacker LaVar Arrington, a three-time Pro Bowl performer who played seven years in the NFL with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, thinks that would be the right call. Penn State has no succession plan in place, so if Bradley is the Lions’ coach-in-waiting, no one in the Graham Spanier administration is saying. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Grobe Might Consider Penn State Move

The Winston-Salem Journal writer Lenox Rawlings surmises it will be very difficult for any school to pry Jim Grobe from Wake Forest. However, he believes there could be two jobs which he might seriously consider…

This is pure speculation, but two situations might intrigue Grobe. He graduated from Virginia, where Al Groh has kicked off his second straight save-the-job comeback. Penn State offers nearly everything a 56-year-old coach could want: tradition, recruiting base, title aspirations, money and the chance, established through precedent, to coach another 20 or 30 years if things work out. The potential Penn State clincher: proximity to Grobe’s native West Virginia, to Virginia and to all sorts of folks from a common culture. The potential impediment: Grobe might choose golf over football before Joe Paterno officially retires. – Winston-Salem Journal

Report: Bradley Could Replace JoePa

With questions about JoePa’s health abound, many media outlets are already beginning to sepcualte on who might replace the legendary coach at Penn State. The Sporting News’ take…

When the streetlights clicked on in Johnstown, Pa., young Tom Bradley would quit his neighborhood pickup games and dash home. And as a teenager, he knew the 11 p.m. shift change siren at the local mill signaled his curfew was near. These days, Bradley, Penn State’s defensive coordinator, sees his life governed by the rhythms of 81-year-old Nittany Lions coach Joe Paterno. And there’s strong speculation that the next significant sounds for Bradley will come at a press conference, where PSU administrators introduce him as the new leader of the program to which he has devoted nearly two-thirds of his life.

Report: Cowher Could Land at Penn State

With Joe Paterno’s health in question, there are several media reports speculating on who may replace the Hall of Famer should be step down at season’s end…

There are three theories on what will happen at Penn State when Joe Paterno finally surrenders to age. 1. A current assistant, probably Tom Bradley, will be elevated. 2. A member of the “Penn State family,” such as former Lions all-America Mike Munchak (now the offensive line coach of the Tennessee Titans), will be named. Former Paterno assistants such as Greg Schiano of Rutgers and Al Golden of Temple also fit in this group. 3. A person with no ties to the program, but a sufficiently “big name” to withstand the pressures of following Paterno, will be named. Bill Cowher long has been the favorite of those who want to go outside, but Lane Kiffin, fired last week by the Oakland Raiders and a onetime assistant at Southern Cal, would also would be a vastly popular choice. – Philadelphia Inquirer

Joe Paterno’s physical health has declined to the point where it could cause him to do something no one expected: retire of his own accord. There is some mystery about the exact condition of Paterno’s right knee, but he is hobbling badly and looked like a man who will be 82 in two months when he made a brief appearance on the field before the game Saturday against Purdue. The injury is said to have occurred three days before the season opener when Paterno was demonstrating a kicking technique. It appears to be getting worse instead of better, not all that surprising for someone his age. Some have speculated he has a ligament injury that will require surgery. A more authoritative source has said the problem is with his hip and that Paterno will require hip-replacement surgery after the season. Paterno was on a golf cart at practice this week, a further indication that he is not getting better. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The football is going to get kicked off on Saturday night. On Tuesday afternoon, Joe Paterno can’t say where he’s going to be when that ball soars end-over-end through the air. Call it the start of a storyline that may linger throughout the second half of Penn State’s football season. Arthritis pain in his right leg caused Paterno to coach the entire game against Purdue from the Ross-Ade Stadium press box last week, and it might lead him to do the same this week when his sixth-ranked Nittany Lions take on desperate Wisconsin. Although he said his leg was “a little better” Tuesday than it was on Saturday, Paterno said he is reserved to the fact that the pain comes and goes. Which means, he might be coming and going from the sideline. “I’m going to have to live with it for a few weeks, and it might be more than that,” Paterno said during his weekly teleconference on Tuesday. “But hey, that’s why I get that big money.” After the Nittany Lions’ 20-6 win over Purdue, Paterno trumpeted being in the coaches box and what he perceived as the benefits of working with a bird’s-eye view of the action. – Citizens Voice

Rapid Fire: Focus on Shannon, Prince, Bellotti, Fulmer, Paterno

“Rapid Fire” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on multiple coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on no less than five jobs which could soon be open…

Randy Shannon

Randy Shannon is 7-10 overall and 2-8 in the Atlantic Coast Conference since he became UM’s coach. But Shannon said Sunday he’s not feeling any pressure from UM President Donna Shalala or Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt. In fact, Shannon said it’s the opposite. Asked if he felt supported by UM’s administration, he said, “Yeah. As a matter of fact, they’re the ones that are always telling me to calm down. I get frustrated, upset, disappointed and they’re the ones that tell me that you can’t get disappointed about everything.” Shannon, who is in the second year of a four-year contract, said the Hurricanes are “a lot better” than they were last season after five games, despite two straight disappointing conference losses at home. The latest came Saturday when UM bounced back from a 24-point, first-half deficit only to fall to FSU 41-39. UM (2-3) was 4-1 after five games last season. “We’re not far from where we need to be,” said Shannon, whose ‘Canes play Central Florida at 3:45 p.m. Saturday at Dolphin Stadium. “Do I think it’s going to happen this year compared to next year? I’m only worried about this year.” – Palm Beach Post

Ron Prince

After his first 30 games as Kansas State coach, Ron Prince has a 15-15 record. But after watching Prince’s defense yield more than 1,700 yards during the past three games, many Wildcat fans are worried the program is reverting to the pre-Bill Snyder bad ol’ days and questioning whether Prince is the right man for the job. – Topeka Capital-Journal

Mike Bellotti

I hate to say it—I do realize there’s loyalty to the Oregon coach who’s been at U of O since 1995—but Mike Bellotti’s reign as coach should be ending soon. One thing can be said about his teams: They are all hype. When it comes to a big game, Oregon rarely shows up: 5-6 in bowl games, including a three-bowl losing streak, although they did win their bowl game last year. 131 wins and 77 losses is a pretty good record, including one conference championship and one tie for the conference championship. But look at the past few years, when he’s had a really good team that was supposed to be up there in the conference standings and was a supposed favorite for winning the Pac-10. This year it’s shown already, losing 44-10 to USC. It must be frustrating for Duck fans to watch a team with so much talent give up 41 points in a row. That’s inexcusable for a coach of Bellotti’s caliber… It’s time for a change in Eugene, and it starts with Bellotti. – Bleacher Report

Phillip Fulmer

Tennessee plays at No. 10 Georgia on Saturday, and a magical week of practice will be needed for UT to dig itself out of a cavernous hole. When asked if this was more of a must-win or a game of pride, UT Coach Phillip Fulmer didn’t hesitate. “It’s all of the above,” Fulmer said. “It’s not business as usual. This is a very important time for us as we fight like heck to stay in the championship mix and hope somebody else gets beat.” — Tennessean

Joe Paterno

The sad question to ponder today is whether there will be a day when a certain slice on the pie chart of fandom remembers Joe Paterno as the football coach who couldn’t look like a football coach, a guy whose legs were so riddled with pain, walking the sidelines became a weekly impossibility. This isn’t a Joe-should-retire column. This isn’t the time for that. Penn State is 6-0, has legitimate Big Ten title hopes and is coming off a game in which it made a slew of offensive mistakes and still managed to win at Purdue by two touchdowns, 20-6. It would be flat unfair to have criticized Paterno during Penn State’s down times, and then diminish the role he has played during the resurgence. Based on his qualifications and historic status and the kind of success his team is having this season, Paterno has a pretty good case for a contract extension come season’s end. The thing is, the fans and reporters around the program have been looking at the finish line of Paterno’s legendary career for years now. Listening to him Saturday, as he leaned on a metal podium in the bowels of Ross-Ade Stadium as if it were a crutch, you get the feeling that maybe Paterno is starting to see that line for the first time, too. “I’ve got a little arthritis,” he said, casting a frustrated gaze downward toward his left leg. “I take some stuff, and some days, I feel great. Sometimes, I don’t.” Saturday was one of the days he didn’t. As there always seem to be with this program and this man, there are some alternate theories floating around as to why there’s so much pain, so consistently. The main one is that he didn’t just tweak his right knee at all during that now-infamous onside kick drill in summer practice. It’s that he tore his anterior cruciate ligament that day, and now, it won’t get better until he has surgery. In fact, several reporters asked Paterno directly about surgery after Saturday’s game. Never mind the fact that it’s an unfounded theory. The leg Paterno says is causing the problems now is the left leg, the one that he needed surgery to repair after that sideline collision with Andrew Quarless in Wisconsin during the 2006 season. – Scranton Times