Joe Pa hurt at Penn State practice Monday

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T

TJames

The JSW Level
from CBS Sports.com.....

Scary news out of State College on Monday: Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has been hospitalized after getting run over by one of his players. BlueWhiteIllustrated.com reported that Paterno "suffered injuries to his pelvic and shoulder areas" when unsuspecting wide receiver Devon Smith was running a route and ran into him.

If there's any fortune involved, it's that Smith is scarcely bigger than Paterno, at 5'7" and 157 pounds. One shudders to think how much worse the collision would have been if Derek Moye (6'5", 202) had been the receiver involved instead.

Chris Fowler reported that Paterno's injuries are hairline fractures in both the shoulder and pelvis, and that neither will require surgery. That much is promising, but still: a broken bone is much worse news for Paterno than for, say, one of his players.

Now, it's not exactly news that Paterno is old. He's easily the oldest head coach in D-I football, and has been for a long time. People have been wondering if the next season would be his last for about the last decade or two. Old. Ollllld.

And yet, since Paterno's been maintaining his faculties to such a degree, continuing to coach football has been a possibility, so he's been coming back to the sidelines -- and coaching at a high level -- every year. Unfortunately, he's getting to the age where the body doesn't make much progress staying strong or healing quickly. There aren't many coaches other than, say, Pat Fitzgerald or Luke Fickell who can get trucked by an unsuspecting wide receiver and not get hurt. For an 84-year-old man, then, such a collision might be more than his body can fully recover from. And if that's the case, well, that'd be pretty lousy news.
 

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yes yes...good luck to Joe...think of all the young men that he has inspired, encouraged, molded, etc.....I have nuttin but luv for joe pa...
 
You'd think at his age and with his experience, he'd know how to stay out of the way of such collisions. Didn't something similar happen to him a few years ago?
 
Yeah he was hit on the sidelines a couple of years ago during a play in which he suffered a broken leg and torn ligament in his knee. This time he suffered a hairline fracture in his pelvis. I guess being on the sideline is a dangerous play to be at a Penn State game or practice.

Watch out Trent Miles and staff!!!!
 

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Glad he wasn't hurt seriously, but honestly, Paterno hasn't been more than a mouthpiece for the program in years from everything I constantly read. He really needs to pass the torch and I'd venture to say the program would have been more successful in the last 5+ years had he moved on.
 
Jason Svoboda said:
Glad he wasn't hurt seriously, but honestly, Paterno hasn't been more than a mouthpiece for the program in years from everything I constantly read. He really needs to pass the torch and I'd venture to say the program would have been more successful in the last 5+ years had he moved on.
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Spot on Boda --- he's their chief recruiting tool/spokesman. He (and Bowden) both suffered from Bear Bryant-itis... i.e. if I retire, I die.

The AD and President pressured him into retiring around 2003 or 2004.
He refused, closed his front door on them.

They went 11-1 in 2005 (believe he's stepped up his recruiting efforts with fringe character athletes...)
 
Here's a funny JoPa story. As most of you know, I am a Pennsylvania guy and back in 1965, my next door neighbor was the best fullback in the state. He was heavily recruited by Penn State and Rip Engle, the iconic PSU Head Coach in 1965 and his #1 assistant Joe Paterno and they visited my neighbor at his house. While they were there, my neighbor, who knew I would get a kick out of meeting the coaches, invited me over and I got to spend about an hour talking to both of them. The following year, Coach Paterno took over the head coaching responsibility when Rip retired. I still have a football program that both coaches signed and that one hour was a moment I will never forget. A few years ago, I felt that JoPa should step down, but I remember an interview with one of Coach's all-american linebackers saying that the talk about coach being fired was ludicrus and that he felt that Joe was a sharp as ever. In my opinion, he has earned the right to leave when he is ready and believe me, the majority of Nitanny Lion fans feel the same way, not all, but the majority certainly does.

As for my next door neighbor, he was all-state 1st team in football and also was the State heavyweight wrestling champion as well. He went on to play at Dartmouth (w/o a scholarship) and was a 3rd team all-american there. He was then drafted by Green Bay but went to med school instead.
 

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Bally #44 said:
In my opinion, he has earned the right to leave when he is ready and believe me, the majority of Nitanny Lion fans feel the same way, not all, but the majority certainly does.
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Agreed. Having been married to a Penn State alum for 16 years, I learned more than I ever needed to know about Nittany Lions football. The majority of the PSU "fans" who annually call for JoePa's head generally are Pennsylvania hilljacks who never took a single class at Penn State.

Besides, it's an absurd notion that Paterno has become nothing more than a figurehead. Granted, he has delegated more responsibility to his assistants with each passing year, but he still is the leader of the coaching staff and remains an active participant both on and off the field.
 
XTreeXC said:
Agreed. Having been married to a Penn State alum for 16 years, I learned more than I ever needed to know about Nittany Lions football. The majority of the PSU "fans" who annually call for JoePa's head generally are Pennsylvania hilljacks who never took a single class at Penn State.

Besides, it's an absurd notion that Paterno has become nothing more than a figurehead. Granted, he has delegated more responsibility to his assistants with each passing year, but he still is the leader of the coaching staff and remains an active participant both on and off the field.
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He also stammers through recruiting visits and calls people by the wrong names. I've read numerous first hand accounts by recruits on why they didn't go to Penn State on Rivals, Scout, etc. Only difference between Paterno and Bowden is Bowden didn't even take the time to meet the people. You guys have Penn State biases. There is no reason they shouldn't be dominant year in and year out with the fertile recruiting area they're in.
 
Agreed...

Jason Svoboda said:
He also stammers through recruiting visits and calls people by the wrong names. I've read numerous first hand accounts by recruits on why they didn't go to Penn State on Rivals, Scout, etc. Only difference between Paterno and Bowden is Bowden didn't even take the time to meet the people. You guys have Penn State biases. There is no reason they shouldn't be dominant year in and year out with the fertile recruiting area they're in.
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He'll be 85 in December. He's built a heckuva program but VERY few people are as sharp at 85 as they are at 75, 65, 55, etc, etc.

He'll leave on his terms, which is why he's still coaching.

I'm not a PSU fan, nor a tax-payer in Pennsylvannia; he can stay as long as he wants but he's no longer the BRAINS behind the operation.
 

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He also got into trouble not long ago by watching his players practicing on their own and passing along what he saw to his staff. The assistants had to point it out to him and self report the violation to the NCAA. You'd think he'd know better. I certainly don't want to discriminate against him based on age, but agree with others who think he's little more than a figurehead now. I think he stays up on the game fairly well, but I don't know how much he actually controls and dictates. It would be interesting to see a camera crew follow him around, so we can see how engaged and lucid he still is.
 
Bent20, Joe told one of his asistants that one player in particular looked good. That is ALL he said. Yes, that is a violation. But PSU did report it. I bet there is only a handfull of schools that would have reported it to the NCAA.

So Joe Paterno stammers thru recruiting visits? How so? Who is giving this info? I guess he is not a smooth "snake oil salesman" like other Head coaches during recruiting trips.

The man is a legend...who has done things "the right way".

Jason, stating PSU would have would have been more successfull the past 5+ years without Joe Pa is a ......well, I will respectfully disagree.
 
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