For 30 minutes or so Joe Paterno fielded questions and offered answers
regarding the realignment of his coaching staff.
And when it was all over the media was left with a major challenge: Analyze
this.
What did it all mean? And were there hidden meanings? Or was it simply a case
of a cigar just being a cigar as is sometimes the case?
Being neither psychiatrist nor psychologist, I'll just listen to what the corn flakes
tell me.
Which is that Paterno has taken back complete and uncompromised control of
his football program.
What is interesting is that he is doing the exact opposite of what Bear Bryant did
in his late years as a coaching legend when he was putting together the record
Paterno now has locked in his cross hairs. As he shuffled toward retirement,
Bryant delegated more and more of his authority until, by the end, he was merely
a presence, although a pretty formidable one.
The image of him coming out from beneath the stands at Birmingham's Legion
Field and slowly walking around the entire stadium, like some Roman general,
waving to his fans and soaking in their adulation, is indelible. After that, he retired
to the sidelines, offered up a suggestion here and there but generally just allowed
his coaches to coach.
Paterno isn't cut from that mold. No coaching tower on the practice field for him,
no turning over the controls to someone else and allowing them to fly the plane.
If this interpretation of his recent personnel moves is correct, he's just going to
coach the hell out of his football team. Period.
It's what he wants to do. It's his team and, by God, he'll coach it. And maybe
beyond the five years stipulated in his newly signed contract.
"I like to coach,'' he reiterated. "If we can win another national championship, I'd
love it. But it (his decision) had nothing to do with streaks or records. I get up in
the morning and I like to coach. I don't know what else I'd do with myself. Some
people write books until they're 85 because they like to write."
Not that there's any direct comparison between sitting in a darkened room
staring at a blank screen while waiting for a cogent thought to surface and
making a critical decision with the game on the line while 100,000 pairs of
eyeballs burn holes in your neck.
What it's all about is a man who, by his own admission, is a control freak,
retaking complete control.
It's no longer Fran Ganter's offense or Tom Bradley's defense, even though they
were designated as being in charge of those operations.
It's Paterno's operation and they're his lieutenants.
"Obviously, someone has to come up with a decision if there's a dispute,''
Paterno said. "I have to make the decision on both sides. In staff meetings it was
getting to be 'We' and 'You' and it should be 'us'. Jerry (Sandusky's) leaving gave
me an opportunity to get that out of the way and do things I'm comfortable with.
I'm comfortable with eliminating the coordinator stuff."
So, in the final analysis, the impression we're left with is that Paterno, after a
couple of good but not great seasons, has decided that it's time for him to kick
the tires, light the fires and launch this program on a steeper trajectory.
"I'm going to work with everything,'' he said. "I'm going to sit in on the offense
(meetings), the defense (meeting), I'm going to have a hand in everything."
Now, what part of that is unclear?
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