Outside The Bubble
May 8, 2008 by Run Up The Score!
Okay, you read blogs. You may even glance at message boards on occasion. Mostly, these sites tend to lean (often rather heavily) toward the notion that Joe Paterno’s presence on the Penn State sideline is hurting the on-field results of the football team. What about the people you know that are more casual fans, for lack of a better term, of the football program? We’re talking about the folks who show up on Saturdays and tend not to be bothered with following recruiting and rumors about Penn State football. What is their sense of the current state of State?
Personally, my father (a mid-60’s PSU grad in terms of both his graduation year and current age) thinks Joe should’ve moved on 10-15 years ago. My mom just doesn’t understand why somebody would want to be burdened with running such an expansive operation at the age of 81. But I’d be interested to hear what the less obsessed people in your lives have to say about the issue.
My parents (went to class with Franco) think he should have gone a long time ago too. My younger uncles, who knew his kids, are a closed book - I haven’t been able to figure out their opinion.
Fukkenquilt. I actually tried to go to wordpress and login to get an avamatar, but it’s done broked (won’t send me an email to fix me password even).
Test
Eww, mine sucks!
Fake address!
My 85 year old Grandpa thinks the “stubborn old coot” should have retired 13 years ago.
My parents are just starting their 50s and they are on the fence. They love Joe and they will know that they will miss him when he’s gone but they also feel he needs to fire jay and get out a little more. They’re in the Joe should be able to step down when he pleases camp.
I know people who cite the Michigan game last year as the breaking point. As the story goes, during the week leading up to the game, Joe gave Jay and Galen the opportunity to design a gameplan to exploit Michigan’s weaknesses (evident from the App St. and Oregon beatings). Though I don’t have great faith in either of those guys, this move represented Joe acknowledging that his traditional model (3 yards and a cloud of dust, or whatever) wouldn’t work. Sadly, this realization was short lived… because when game time arrived, Joe got Jay and Galen together and said, “Ah, let’s just do it the way we always do it.” And who were they to say “no”? So we wound up with Morelli throwing 2 yard passes to the sidelines and Austin Scott getting stuffed up the middle. We looked awful and lost - again - to those bums in a year we should have beaten them.
Another obvious concern that some people have is with the fact that Joe doesn’t actively travel to recruit anymore. This represents an inability to carry out an important job task.
Wife is a domer and knows her CFB shit - she’s as dispassionate about Paterno as anyone could be.
She thinks he should have moved on at least 5 years ago - probably after 1999.
I think I actually like mine - is this to prevent Handlejacking?
Handlejack…
Guess so.
My parents are just into their 60s. Dad thought Joe should have retired after the ‘94 season. Mom can’t believe that Joe’s still on the sideline at this point. They have been attending games at PSU off and on since the 70s, more often now that they have three children as PSU alums.
Non-PSU people that I know out here in the Twin Cities ask me all the time when Paterno is going to retire and drop snide comments, especially after Bowelgate at Columbus two years ago. There is usually some recognition that Joe has been good for the game but that it’s time to go now.
So, the majority of my PSU friends are froms the ages of about 24-32. We all love getting together for the games, tailgating, etc. A couple of us have season tickets and those who don’t are usually willing to pay a decent amount of money for tickets to one big game a year. For the most part, we were in school for at least one losing season. While I do hang out on the boards, blogs, etc. quite a bit I don’t take things as seriously as a lot of those folks (although I was threatening to give up my season tickets after the Ohio State game last year). I’d say most people that I hang out with aren’t super-happy with the program, but the PSU football experience is so much different and better now than it was when we were in school that people are generally…..meh….about PSU football. I actually think a lot more people blame the last two years on Morelli than JoePa. And regardless, it’s still better than what it was 5 years ago. I even think a lot of people consider the off-the-field nonsense to be the players’ fault, not Joe’s. We’ll see after this year though.
Oh, and I think a big difference between the people who following recruiting and those who don’t is that the latter group doesn’t really know that we could be in big trouble in 2009-2010 if this year’s class doesn’t address some major needs. But the thing is, if we have a great season on the field this year (which I think most of us realize is at least possible) and the coaching situation gets worked out (again, possible) we’ll probably pull in a nice class and we could end up being fine. If that happens, I really envy those fans because while we wring our hands over a season that’s two years away, as far as they are concerned there was never a problem.
Oh, no, she’s going to tell us again that she’s never been a big fan of Paterno…
So, I grew up in a house where Joe was openly criticized (by my dad) - okay, his game coaching was criticized. We’ve been saying that “Joe must go” for, well, forever.
My mom works on campus - she sees Coach Paterno as a symbol of the University and basically thinks that he should stay as long as he wants to.
The majority of my non message board/RUTS junkie friends don’t really concern themselves with the politics of college football - they do, however, revere Coach Paterno and most will defend him no matter what.
just wanted to see if I got a different quilt.
eww, didn’t like that one -
how’s about…
See, now you have a blue and white quilt!
And Mike @ Black Shoe Diaries thinks he’s all fancy with an entirely new platform, starting tonight. That’s nothing compared to comment quilts. Feel the technology!
Just chatted w/ RUTS about this and I think I made a valid point for once.
Major D1 football is a business, even at PSU and when the program suffers (you know it is Superhomers) someone need to be accountable.
If PSU was all about family and is not big business why do we pay so much every year for nittany lion club, tickets, merch, parking, etc. PSU bleeds tons of money from their fans yet I don’t recall my mother/father making me pay for food.
My point - It’s big business and Joe can’t stand he is no longer above the program is being held accountable…and he doesn’t like it.
BTW — TS is the ultrahomer
Dad thinks JoePa should step down, but that Bradley deserves his chance.
Mom is a Hawkeye, so she has concerns of her own with Ferentz.
Most people who I work with see us doing fairly well and like Joe, so I’m not sure they care about the details of whether we pass over the middle of if some 18 yr old kid wants to come to PSU. They just don’t care enough. They see us on tv, we win more than we lose, we play in bowl games. They’re ok with that.
Yes, StL - I am a superhomer, but only because I have some deep roots with PSU. Spend a lot of free time with either PSU football or other PSU academic/alumni activities. I understand how the university works behind the scenes.
Joe means too much to the university, both in the sense of history, PR, and fund raising to fire him. Anyone who argues against that has no idea what’s important to the people who run PSU. Best case scenario for all is he names a successor. And, no, it won’t be some clown without PSU ties. And, bad news, anti-superhomers: no one can guarantee that a new coach will be able to produce better results. Could be a lot worse, you know…
The new BSD had better let me pick my quilt…
I kinda like that.
Yes, Kapitan — Seems you can do much worse than that one.
TS - I appreciate your love of PSU but don’t be blinded brother…thats all I am saying…ultrahomo
TS, the program is already basically where Engle left it for Joe, if not a bit worse (the Gator Bowl of those times was more prestigious than three of our last four) and there’s strong evidence we’re headed further down.
People like you and Eric who insist on treating each tree separately are maroons. (”It’s just one eighteen-year-old!”). The forest is pretty fucking bleak looking forward. He’s leaving the cupboard bare for whomever ends up taking over. Worse, from a talent perspective, than the Dark Ages.
Hey, do my words sound any less pissed next to that soothing pink fukkenquilt?
Hey
If anyone needs tickets for Philly/Burg game 3 let me know.
Price - $189
Section - 206-207
This includes a bus trip from NE PA and 2 hr tailgate. My bud (PFT) is running this event and should be a good time. I am driving up from Baltimore area to attend, obviously the bus trip will not help but comp tickets are $200+. There are 28 tickets left
If interested… uponbase@gmail.com
What’s a maroon?
Can I get a new quilt?
I just asked my 2 year old godson (who happens to be wearing his Penn State Nike jacket this morning) “do you like Joe Paterno, or do you think he should retire?”
His answer?
“Lollipop!”
I concur.
I don’t know any casual fans of Penn State football. Friends who are college football fans from other universities seem to use the exact same phrase, “So when’s Joe gonna go?” (VA Techies are bugging me; first they go 7-1 in conference and then they steal our stuff:
http://www.hokiesports.com/football/recaps/20080418aaa.html )
Out of the ones who don’t follow recruiting and rumors that closely, I hear “Joe Paterno should go out with the record” quite a bit. Again, they aren’t truly casual Penn Staters, so they know all about Jimbo-in-waiting at FSU thanks to ESPN and their favorite sports pages.
A lot of them are looking forward to the return of the option, as the only better-than-mediocre year of the Jay Paterno Era was quite spectacular, due in part to the excellent performance of the option variant used in 2005.
Everyone likes Joe Paterno; everyone thinks he should retire anywhere from “in the next few years” to “it’s silly to think he’s going to be there ten years from now.” Most people want a plan for the future; many people want it publicly known.
My brother, who seemingly only follows sports that I post about on my blog for the sake of conversation, had this to say about Paterno after the Michigan game last year.
“He looks like he has lost the will to win.”