Joe Paterno will not be coaching Penn State in 2012. Actually, Paterno will not coach another game for Penn State. They will have a new head coach, one not named Joe Paterno, for the first time since 1965.
So, who will replace him?
That depends on who you ask, and who is making the decision.
But ask yourself this: If you were a high profile coach with little to no financial needs, would you want any part of Penn State?
I sure wouldn’t. There are a few reasons why.
Recent news is not good.
Watch ESPN for more than 10 consecutive minutes. Watch any sports channel for that long. Whether it’s actually on the news, or on the ticker at the bottom, the last several days has been flat-out dominated by this scandal and the alleged crimes.
Even if the people who were responsible for this are all gone, what kind of image are recruits going have about this school?
Well, see what one of them, Noah Spence, had to say via Twitter.
Monday, Nov. 7 at 3:11 p.m. EST
Spence is ranked by Rivals as a five-star recruit, the second-best defensive end in the country, and 16th-ranked player in the nation.
Just a crazy question: do you think he’s the only recruit that has that attitude? I have my doubts.
In a world where just about every high profile NCAA team has most (or all) of their games televised, Penn State has very little going for it right now. Any coach will know this.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say that none of this happened. Let’s just say that Paterno, who will be 85 in December, just decided that enough was enough. That raises the second question.
Who in the world would want to follow Joe Paterno at Penn State?
Look at all that he’s done and all that he’s accomplished. The bar has been set so high that there is just no way that any established coach should want to follow that act.
Now bring it all together. Consider the scandal and the enormous shoes that need to be filled. If you were the friend of a high-profile coach, one who didn’t need the money, would you really advise that person to go to Penn State?
Frankly, I couldn’t imagine a situation where I would.
It’s not that Penn State is a dead program. It’s in a high-profile conference and does bring a lot of tradition. Time generally does heal wounds. As long as they stay in the Big Ten, they will rebuild the program.
But that’s in time. The immediate future at Penn State is not good.
It’s not hard to see that.
