Another Paterno milestone
STATE COLLEGE — Four decades in one job is a milestone that in most careers merits extra vacation time, a gold watch from the boss or at least an office party.
Joe Paterno wants none of it.
Paterno said Tuesday that he wasn't even aware that this, his 41st season as Penn State head coach, ties him with the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg for most years leading a major college football program at one institution.
"I'm just anxious to get on with this season, regardless of whether it's my first, sixth, 10th, 50th. This is a whole new year, a whole new bunch of kids," Paterno said Tuesday at his first weekly news conference of the 2006 season. "I wouldn't know if I tied Stagg's record for longevity or not."
Looking fit in a dark suit jacket, the 79-year-old coach felt more comfortable talking about his rebuilt offensive line (four new starters) and preparing for Akron, the 19th-ranked Nittany Lions' opponent Saturday, than about the latest marker of his long career.
Paterno came to Penn State as an assistant in 1950 before being promoted to head coach in 1966. His rolled-up khakis and thick-rimmed glasses have been a mainstay on the Beaver Stadium sidelines ever since.
Stagg worked 41 seasons as head coach at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932. The man credited with inventing the huddle, putting numbers on the back of players' jerseys and creating plays like the double reverse later coached down the road from Penn State for a while as an assistant to his son at Susquehanna, in Selinsgrove, from 1947 to 1952.
Stagg is a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame, an honor that will be officially bestowed on Paterno later this year.
While Paterno never met Stagg, he did meet Stagg's son. Stagg died in 1965 at 102.
"I didn't know Amos," said Paterno, whose current four-year deal expires after the 2008 season. "I'm in good company, let me put it that way."
That's about as much as Paterno would talk about the milestone.
"I don't go to bed now thinking about what we did in 1962," he said when asked about his favorite season openers. "I'm worried about what we're going to do this Saturday. There's a thousand things that go through my head."
Chief among them is the offensive line, which must protect new quarterback Anthony Morelli and open holes for 1,000-yard rusher Tony Hunt. Left tackle Levi Brown is the only starter returning from last year.
Akron, last season's Mid-American Conference champion, may not be an early-season pushover at Beaver Stadium. They have eight starters returning on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Luke Getsy, who led the MAC in total offense.
After his half-hour give-and-take with reporters, Paterno busied himself for another afternoon of getting ready for another season.
"OK guys," he said as he left his seat. "Here we go again."
