Sports

Paul Sokoloski

Sprinting down the field as fast as his 81-year-old legs would carry him, Joe Paterno made a beeline straight for Daryll Clark.

The legendary coach watched Clark force a pass that should never have been thrown, and he wasn’t going to waste any time letting his quarterback know about it.

This play didn’t happen in the fourth quarter against Michigan. The scene played out at an indoor practice field at Holuba Hall on the last Saturday afternoon of March, instead of at Beaver Stadium on an important Saturday in November.

Didn’t matter to Paterno. It might as well have been the national championship game at Dolphin Stadium.

“All I want to do,” Paterno said, “is make everybody out there as good as they can be.”

It is why Penn State president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley should sit down today and ask Paterno to sign a new three-year contract.

Nobody in college football’s Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) has more bowl wins or more respect on the game-day sideline than Joe Paterno. He has two national championships, 372 wins, is coming off three straight bowl victories and has won 29 of the 37 games Penn State has played over the past three seasons.

Yet, Paterno enters his 43rd year as Penn State’s head coach with an expiring contract. And the guys in the executive offices at Penn State aren’t in a real big hurry to renew it.

“The last three years,” Paterno said, “we’ve won 75 percent of our games. Three years ago, I’m coach of the year, we’re a couple seconds away from playing for the national championship. I feel good about what we’re doing.”

He shouldn’t need to lobby for his position like this, not in the late innings of a career that’s been right up there with any in the history of college football.

Because it has always been about a lot more than wins and losses with Paterno.

He clapped his hands a couple of times Saturday morning to offer encouragement. He criticized quarterback Paul Cianciolo for making a wrong read. He scolded his defense, didn’t like someone’s response from the huddle, and spun around to let loose with a furious tongue-lashing.

“He’s always fired up,” Penn State senior linebacker Sean Lee said.

“He still yells, like he did the first day I walked into the door,” Nittany Lions senior defensive end Josh Gaines said. “If he’s not going to be here, we’ll never know.”

Spanier and Curley, not to mention Penn State trustees, have every right to be concerned about the rash of arrests that have plagued the football team during the past year. But know this. Nobody’s more concerned than Paterno, who has always embraced his role as a father figure.

He can’t watch every member of his team every minute of the day.

All Joe Paterno can do is scold, criticize and correct the mistakes his players make, whether they are happening on the field or away from it. With or without job security, he’ll do what he’s always done. He’ll give his best to get the best.

Paul Sokoloski is a Times Leader sports columnist. You may reach him at 970-7109 or e-mail him at psokoloski@timesleader.com.