Columnist Ron Kantowski: Paterno deserves better

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

Sixty-six-year-old John Robinson is off to an 0-3 start at UNLV this season, but nobody has suggested the game has passed him by or that his first move upon becoming the Rebels' athletic director in January should be hiring a new football coach.

The same can't be said of 74-year-old Joe Paterno at Penn State.

A columnist in the Pittsburgh Post has called for the legendary Jo Pa to resign at season's end, regardless of the Nittany Lions' record this year. At least he did it nicely, tossing bouquets to Paterno for Penn State's remarkable achievements on the field during his 36 seasons as head coach (he's just two wins from overtaking Bear Bryant atop the career list), and the way his players have conducted themselves away from it.

You can count the times Paterno has had to get a player out of jail to play on Saturday on one finger. And Rashard Casey, Paterno's quarterback the past couple of seasons who was accused of beating up an off-duty police officer, eventually was cleared of those charges, leaving Penn State's rap sheet about as short as its coach's pants.

But those "high-water" trousers Paterno wears on game day haven't protected him from a flood of criticism amid the Nittany Lions' sudden turn in fortunes. Penn State has lost 12 of its past 18 games, finished 5-7 last year and is off to an 0-2 start this year with a tough game at Iowa on tap Saturday.

One of those losses was a 33-7 defeat to No. 1 Miami, but there have been other bad outings against not-so-formidable competition. There was an eyebrow-raising 24-6 defeat to Toledo last year, perhaps the first sign that the Nittany Lions were becoming more ordinary than their uniforms.

But it was just two years ago that Penn State won its first nine games. It's not as if Paterno lost all of his football smarts over spring break.

Sure, he's old, although he doesn't look old. Were it not for those thick, yellow-tinted glasses that, when held at the right angle on a sunny day might be able to launch the space shuttle, he could pass for your uncle, instead of your grandfather.

And even his detractors point out that he was old two years ago, when Penn State opened 9-0; he was old in 1994, when it went 12-0; and he was old the next two seasons, when the Nittany Lions went 20-5. Paterno's like Paul Newman -- his age hasn't factored in his ability to perform.

But getting a quarterback to perform is another matter. With parity in vogue and the triple-option offense having been phased out, it's nearly impossible to dominate college football without a talented passer, and Penn State hasn't had one since Kerry Collins in the mid '90s.

All that aside, Paterno has earned the right to walk away on his own terms. Give him a little time to pause and reflect, and his future will start to look crystal clear, like the Fiesta Bowl game plan for Miami. He'll know what to do, and how to do it.

Funny, but when new coaches take over, they usually are given at least three years to turn around a program, or to run it into the ground. It's sad -- appalling even -- that given all that Joe Paterno has accomplished at Penn State in 36 years, there are those who think he should go based on the past 13 months.

I, for one, will rue the day when the Nittany Lions run onto the field dressed like Oregon.