JoePa meets retirement talk with a shrug

Though looking “tired and a bit thinner” than he did in May, Joe Paterno has no timetable set for his retirement. Paterno said the intestinal problems that slowed him for nearly two months were “nothing very serious.” “I’m feeling really good,” he said Monday at the Big Ten Conference’s annual media days. “And as long as I enjoy it, I’ll continue to coach, unless I don’t think I can do a good job or anybody else doesn’t think I can do the job. We’ll talk about that later. But right now I have no plans whatsoever as far as whether I’m going to go another year, two years, five years or what have you.” … Guard Stefen Wisniewski from Central Catholic High School believes Paterno “looks pretty much the same. He might have lost a little weight, but I think you can expect that. He was sick there for a little while. But he still has the same energy level, the same passion.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Health not expected to keep Penn State’s Paterno off sideline

A health issue has sidelined Penn State coach Joe Paterno for nearly two months, but it is not expected to keep him off the football field this season. “Coach Paterno has had intestinal issues this summer that have forced him to limit his efforts to team activities and therefore some of his personal appearances have been cancelled,” university president Graham Spanier said Monday night in an e-mail. “We have no reason to be concerned about coach Paterno’s ability to lead the team.” Paterno, 83, is the winningest coach in Division I-A history with a record of 394-129-3. He has been a no-show for three “Evening With Joe” appearances in the past two months due to his illness. He missed two alumni/booster club events in May in Pittsburgh and Hershey and another earlier this month in Philadelphia. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Joe Paterno advocates expansion to the East

oePa sees expansion of the Big Ten, and he wouldn’t mind it coming from his own side of the map. “I think expansion is coming,” Paterno said today on a Big Ten coaches’ teleconference. … Paterno, 83, said he would like to see a team from the East be part of the Big Ten’s expansion plans, although he didn’t mention the names of any schools. “When all this happens, I’ll probably be out of this thing,” he said. “I’d like to see our particular conference move East a little bit. It would give us a little broader television market and a little more exposure and if we had 12 teams we’d have a chance to get into some kind of championship [game]. Whether that means you go 12 [teams] or you go 14. I don’t know. I don’t know all the consequences.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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

Indiana to make $3 million by moving Penn State game

Indiana will trade a home football game with Penn State next season for a $3 million pay day, athletic director Fred Glass said Tuesday. The Hoosiers have agreed to move the game, scheduled Nov. 20, to FedEx field in Landover, Md. FedEx Field is the home of the Washington Redskins, who first approached IU about making the deal. “Obviously, it’s very positive for us financially,” Glass said. “When you rank second to the bottom in the conference in money spent per sport, you have to color outside the lines and be open to new ways to generate revenue.” Indiana generally makes less than $1 million per home game. Glass is working to add a sixth home date by either moving a planned non-conference game at Central Michigan back to Bloomington or by replacing the Chippewas with a Football Bowl Subdivision team that will agree to play at Memorial Stadium. – Herald-Times

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