Milestones for JoePa, Royster await at Penn St.
STATE COLLEGE — It's all about milestones this season at Penn State.
Tailback Evan Royster is poised to break the school's career rushing record, just 480 yards shy of newly minted College Football Hall of Famer Curt Warner's two decade-old mark of 3,398. Creaky Beaver Stadium is about to host its 50th season of Penn State football.
And, invariably, there's always some record or milestone within reach for Joe Paterno, and his 45th season as the Nittany Lions coach is no different. JoePa is just six wins shy of joining Eddie Robinson and John Gagliardi in the 400 career victories club.
"When I'm down and looking up," Paterno said, drawing laughs at Big Ten media days in Chicago this month as he held his arms out with palms up, "are they going to put 399 on top of me, or are they going to put 401? Who the hell cares? I won't know."
The legion of blue and white faithful most assuredly will be keeping track, not just following Paterno's wins and losses, but the Hall of Famer's health and stamina. He will be 84 in December, though laser eye surgery this year has Paterno able to see without the aid of his smoky, thick-rimmed glasses.
The biggest question around Paterno typically involves around some variation of how much longer he'll be around.
"But right now I have no plans whatsoever as far as whether I'm going to go another year, two years, five years or what have you," said Paterno, in the second year of a three-year deal that will take him through 2011. "We're just going to hopefully have a decent year this year."
How decent will depend in large part on who steps up at quarterback with record-setting Daryll Clark having graduated. That leaves control of the spread HD offense to one of two sophomores, Kevin Newsome or Matt McGloin, with true freshmen Paul Jones and Robert Bolden considered longshots.
McGloin, a former walk-on who was the third-stringer last year, feels he has a good chance at the top job though he may not be as fast or athletic as the highly recruited Newsome.
"It makes me work harder, use it as motivation," he said.
The question marks on both sides of the ball and special teams have most picking at least a three-loss season given a schedule that includes games at Alabama, Iowa and Ohio State.
"A lot of people say this is going to be our down year and we're young, but we're not going to accept that," Still said. "We're going to go out there and prove everybody wrong."
