Joe Paterno was doing his swing through Pittsburgh yesterday, so it can’t be avoided to mention it. Part of me wants to. It seems a tired topic. It’s easy to bash him, and it’s not that it isn’t fun to do so to him and Penn St., goodness no. It just seems like the same old dance.

Here’s the obligatory column on Penn St. and Pitt should play each other. Mike Prisuta does the honors this year.

On Thursday night, Joe Paterno, often accused of being out of touch in recent seasons, displayed a keen understanding of what a great many Pennsylvanians have always suspected is the main reason, the only reason one of college football’s storied rivalries has been put on hold.

“I’m the bad guy, and I’m the guy in the black hat in this one,” Paterno offered prior to a Nittany Lions’ gala at the Duquesne Club.

“But I’m not.”

Sensing a more detailed explanation was necessary, Paterno expounded.

The game can’t be played, he maintained, for a variety of reasons.
…
Pitt wants the series to resume on a home-and-home basis badly enough that Wannstedt made a priority of reaching out to Paterno upon taking over in Oakland.

“Dave talked to me, and I tried to tell Dave, I said ‘Dave’ — look, I tried to get Dave out of high school, and I think Dave’s gonna do a heck of a job for Pitt, and I think that’s great — but Penn State’s gotta take care of Penn State.

“We’re not an Eastern institution as far as football goes. We’re a national institution playing in the Big Ten, OK?”

Actually, it’s not.

Penn State remains first and foremost a Pennsylvania institution, but that seems to have been lost on Paterno, just as 27 Big Ten games have been lost by Paterno since Nov. 6, 1999.

Eventually, JoePa grew tired of even his rhetoric yesterday.

Once that happened, he established that his memory is as sharp as ever.

“Pitt years ago, when I tried to put the Eastern Conference together, Pitt decided to go in the Big East for basketball,” Paterno said. “Fine, they had to make that decision. Now, though, everything’s kind of become convoluted.

“We’d all like to re-evaluate how we got where we are and the whole bit, but you know when Pitt went in the Big East, that cut my legs out from me, what I was trying to do, because I felt we needed an all-sports conference.”

For Paterno, it always comes back to that. Paterno has his version of what happened, even if it doesn’t jibe with reality. Funny how only Pitt, cut him off at the knees back then. Never a word about the Big East, Syracuse, BC or the others. Only Pitt did his dream in.

Instead, there is the news the same day of how the PSU-Temple rivalry is again to be played — at a 2-for-1 deal.

The biggest news, though, is his disappointment with his own coaching. Reflecting uselessly that he may have to go if the team falters again.

This time, if Penn State labors through another disappointing season, Joe Paterno won’t blame his players (because now, he finally likes his team’s talent) and he won’t blame his assistants (because after all, he recently pleaded to keep his staff intact). One more losing season — which would be Penn State’s fifth in six years — will only prompt Paterno to blame himself.
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Speaking first to a small table of media members, Paterno suggested that he would consider retirement if this season — one he believes is filled with promise — instead leads to disappointment.

“If we don’t win some games, I’ve got to get my rear end out of here,” Paterno said. “Simple as that.”

When he actually gets out is still up in the air. As for not blaming anyone else? Right. I notice he left out the referees.

What more is there to say really? A tired topic and a tired old man. Let him hang on as long as he can. That is what Penn St. deserves.