Hello Football

There’s a different gravity in the air this morning. The wind blows a little crisper, your walking gait is slightly more pronounced as if you were marching and somewhere off in the distance you can make out the whisper of a band’s brass section blowing the familiar melody of your team’s song. College football has arrived.

There’s no time quite like this in sports. The only sport that truly celebrates the beginning of its season other than football is baseball. That game kicks off its campaign each year in the spring when fans are emerging from their winter cocoons and looking forward to summer vacations and rising temperatures. The world is getting greener and daylight is winning its struggle against the horizon, giving us more hours of sunshine. It’s not hard to rouse up excitement for April baseball with those driving factors at the wheel.

Here at college football, we don’t share those benefits. The best climates are in our rear-view mirror and the first weeks of autumn signify the beginning of school and the onset of shorter days and waking up to ice-crusted windshields. The fact that the unmatched enthusiasm for this most unique of sports overcomes those natural obstacles is only a testament to how much we love this game. Face it, without college football we would hibernate like big, giant, grumpy bears.

It’s been a tumultuous decade for Penn State. The last year of the 21st century saw Penn State climb to #2 in the country before collapsing at the end of the year. Just a few months later, the Nittany Lions would represent both the first and second overall picks in the NFL Draft. It seemed as if the dawn of the third millennium anno domini would harbor a golden age for Joe Paterno and his team. Instead, fans got the opposite.

The first back-to-back losing seasons in Paterno’s tenure opened the 2000's and were followed by the historical odyssey of Larry Johnson before two-more losing campaigns that featured a combined seven victories. Times had never been darker, and it appeared as if it were the Penn State program that was hibernating.

Then a high school senior named Derrick Williams rustled the Nittany Nation from its slumber. He offered his talents to Penn State despite its recent struggles and opened the door for other gifted recruits to join him. He claimed it was because of how the Beaver Stadium fans supported a 3-7 version of the Lions during senior day against Michigan State and how this team walked into the tunnel as one. No cliques, no individuals…just one team. He encouraged a frustrated fan base by proclaiming, “Let’s take this sleeping lion to a national championship.” And then, he delivered.

While it’s true that more was expected of D-Wheels individually during his first three years at Penn State, it cannot be argued that he failed to accomplish what he set out to do. Penn State has not been below .500 since he signed his letter of20intent to play in Happy Valley and its record since his arrival is the eighth best of any school during that time. Three years, 29 wins, one unfulfilled promise. Now a senior captain, if he’s going to take us to a national championship, this has to be the year.

Still, if this season doesn’t end with a victory in the BCS Championship game, it can’t be guaranteed that it was a failure. For the first time since his thanks Daddy well-earned position as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, it appears Jay Paterno is stepping out on his own taking some responsibility. His brainchild, the Spread HD, should seal his fate one way or another. Finally*, either Lions fans will have the proof that JoePa 2.0 can’t coach at all or he will have the ultimate “in-your-face” to those who believe he’s where he is based on DNA alone.
*Finally as in, “Finally after all the other concrete evidence we have that he actually helps quarterbacks regress and can’t manage to run a consistent offense and is hopeless in the red zone.”

This is a year where Penn State can finally get over its embarrassing maize and blue roadblock. I know we say it every year, but there’s no way Michigan can beat us this year…right?

This senior class can become only the fifth in school history to play in and win four consecutive bowl games. Although no other class has ever accomplished that without either having an undefeated season or winning a national championship.

For the second time, we can watch Paterno become the all-time winningest coach in major college football history. Remember when Bobby Bowden passed Joe and everybody said Paterno would never catch him? In the last three years, Joe has “out-won” Bobby 29 – 22 and is 1-0 against him head-to-head. He trails him by only one game heading into Saturday.

There are so many things to look forward to as a Penn State fan this season, and this team has the potential to be really special. Last year, ill-timed turnovers at Michigan and Illinois and an unthinkable collapse at Michigan State spoiled what was set up to be a special season. This year, the promise of a new quarterback and scorching red-shirt freshman Stephon Greene will add explosiveness to what had been an underachieving offense. On defense, a ridiculously deep defensive line and playmaking secondary will help an inexperienced linebacking corps that is as athletic and hungry as it is green.

So let’s savor every moment of this 2008 season, from the “opening ceremony” against Coastal Carolina to the impossible gauntlet of Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State in consecutive weeks, because this year just might be a season to remember.

Ode to Joe

Penn State fans approach most football seasons with a certain set of absolute truths in tow.

The Nittany Lion faithful know that Penn State will field a competitive team, having the sixth winningest program in the history of the sport will afford you that confidence.

They know that Penn State will take the field at Beaver Stadium with the classic and vanilla blue and white uniforms that have become a symbol of the university.

And they know that Joe Paterno will lead his players when they come bursting out of that tunnel in the south end zone.

All of those will be true again on this Saturday when Penn State begins its 122^nd season of football against Coastal Carolina, but 2008 may be the last year we can enjoy such assurances.

It’s hard to remember a season when there were as many compelling storylines as exist for this current crop of Nittany Lions. Promises of a new, explosive offense called “The Spread HD” may flip the strength of this team from its traditional home on the defensive side of the football across the line of scrimmage to the offense.

Can Linebacker U churn out its third consecutive All-American at the position its best known for even with the loss of Sean Lee?

Is this the year to finally beat Michigan (in the largest stadium in the country, I might add)?

How will the team respond to its newly-gained reputation as lawbreakers and thugs?

All of these questions will be answered definitively on the field over the next 13 weeks. But among all the unknown elements that encircle this team, one is going to loom largest.

Is this it for Joe Paterno?

As Penn State fans, we might want to ignore that subject and focus on the players and their quest to repeat the breakout season of 2005, but it’s not going to go away. Everybody is of an opinion as to whether Paterno, who just coached his 500^th game for Penn State in last year’s Alamo Bowl and will turn 82 this December, should remain on the sidelines or step down after this season, but a convincing argument can be made for both options.

I’ll spare you all the numbers and accomplishments that litter his resume and I won’t even attempt to influence your belief as to what his football fate should be. But I do ask one thing…

Respect Joe Paterno.

Forget about whether or not the game has passed him by, or whether or not he can still recruit the best athletes in the country. We all read and write this e-mail for one reason – we love Penn State. And I ask you, how many of you would love Penn State if it weren’t for this man?

I am not implying that you all applied to Penn State just so that you could be a part of that student section and cheer for the Lions (although some of us certainly did), but understand what Penn State was when this ivy-leaguer from Brooklyn stepped on campus. It was an under-funded farmers’ school in the absolute middle of nowhere Pennsylvania.

Penn State had no national reputation that would foretell the immense shadow that it casts on both the academic and athletic playing fields today. Joe put our school on the map. The visibility that the university gained through his efforts helped pave the way to increase enrollment and turn Penn State into the great research university that it is today.

Without him, Penn State would still be a reputable agricultural and engineering school in Pennsylvania, but with him it’s an institution and a brand that is recognized around the world. In that way, he is responsible for all the great memories we made at Penn State and all the money we’ll spend when we force send our kids there.

All of that has nothing to do with whether or not he has any clue as to what he’s doing out there on the field in 2008, but it does mean one thing - he sure as hell has earned your respect. Don’t take him for granted this season, because when he’s gone, he’s not coming back and it will be a long time, if ever, before college football or Penn St ate sees anybody similar.

So, please respect JoePa. Because someday, somewhere, some college football fan will ask you about him when he’s long gone, and you’ll hear that squeaky voice, and see that big nose, those thick glasses and those tightly cuffed khaki pants in your memory and realize that we had something at Penn State that no other fans had, so pay attention to it and admire it while it's still here.