JoePa being shown the door at PSU?

"Pap pap, tell me the story again about how you would use big plastic blocks with tape in them to record things, how phones used to be plugged into walls and how Penn State was once dominant in football..."

 

Utter bullshit. Leave the guy alone.

Paterno went 9-4 in each of the past two seasons, went 11-1 the year before that. Won his past three bowls games, too. His 11-1 season in 2005, when he was 78, was absolute brilliance, no matter how old the coach is. Penn State kicked ass that year, with a 78-year-old coach. They must have liked playing for that guy.

Meanwhile, Spurrier has gone 7-5, 8-5 and 6-6.

When JoePa goes 5-7 again, those of you who like to kick dogs can get your jollys again. Any coach that goes 9-4 in the Big Ten, or anywhere else, is doing a pretty damn good job.

You can't schedule a national championship, or tell your coach it's time to get one again. You play the games, and you take your shots. Penn State is still a national contender, though they could use a great quarterback yet again.

But where is FSU these days? Georgia? Auburn? Miami?

Penn State still has a great coach. I agree, he should give it up soon.

But when you go 11-1, 9-4 and then 9-4 again, and win the bowls too, how can you fault the guy who still has the hunger in his gut?

I hope he goes 10-2 next season. What could you say then?

 

A younger man in his 60s would have gone 12-0?

 

Right. Sign him up. And let's make it clear that 12-0 is the standard here.

National titles are fine. Great. Incredible. But you lose touch with reality, and the role of sports in your life, if you insist on a national-title contender every year.

Relax and be glad your team has a winning record and might get to win the bowl game. Otherwise, you're masturbating and hoping your team can be what you wish you might be.

Sports is a lot of fun. It's not life or death, though. It's not even a good fantasy.

Suck on that, Trebek.

 

NightOwl, I'm closer to you than Slappy on this one. There's one point that I think you're off on, though.

The Nits are not a national player at this time. The Nits are Texas A&M.

Even in the 11-1 year, it was generally conceded that if Manningham doesn't catch that pass, PSU is cannon fodder for whomever it meets in the BCS game.

The Big Ten has truly become the Big Two and the Little Nine. That's the fact of the matter. That's the gap between 2 and 3.

Either you're trying to be funny, or you're really reaching. I'm not sure which.

 

Bull.

January 1987. The current JUNIORS weren't born yet.

And that was my freshman year. Good god, am I getting old.

 

Not reignite an old debate but ...
please don't forget about PSU's superb 1994 perfect season when they got hosed out of the National Championship.
The 1994 team ranked as one of the best college offenses ever. The team's average scoring drive was under two minutes and included no less than three first round draft picks.

Penn State did everything within its poweer to win the national title. Not the Lions fault they weren't awarded even a co-championship.

They would have kicked Nebraska's Ass!

 

I really enjoyed watching that offense and I always hated Nebraska, but no, they would not have kicked the Cornhuskers' ass. That Nebraska team was a machine.

 

That "machine" had to scratch and claw to be an average Miami team in the Orange Bowl.

 

Penn State didn't play Miami in 1994. The Nittany Lions non-con. schedule in '94 was Temple, Rutgers and q highly-touted USC team that was throttled by PSU and finished the year 8-3.

Are you thinking of the '86 PSU team melock?

PSU's '86 team beat Miami when Vinny T was picked off by Shane Conlan inside the PSU 20 with about 14 seconds left to seal a 14-10 win.
BTW: That Miami team was ranked No. 1 and the game was played at the Fiesta Bowl
In '94 the Lions beat Rich Brooks and his Gang Green Oregon defense 38-20. Ki Jana Carter, who averaged 7.6 yards per carry that season, scored the first time he touched the ball - on an 83-yard TD run to spark the Lions.

A few years later, around '98? - during the decline - Penn State won at Miami on a near-miracle, last minute touchdown pass. I think that was the last regular-season meeting between the two.

 

Outofplace referred to Nebraska's '94 team as a 'machine.' The Cornhuskers beat Miami (which was QB'd by Frank Costa) in the Orange Bowl the day before Penn State played Oregon.

Conlon didn't intercept Vinny T to the end the game. It was Pete Giftopoulos.

1999 was the last time Miami and Penn State played in Miami. Chafie Fields caught that TD pass from Kevin Thompson with just over two minutes to play.

Miami crushed Penn State in State College 38-10 in both team's season opener in 2001. That was the last time the two met.

 

Sorry I thought you were talking about PSU.

Chafie Fields! I was trying to remember his name. I was watching the game at the office with my old SE who was giving me a hard time about PSU going down to Miami, until Fields caught the pass.