Joe Paterno Needs to Retire
Michigan Loss a Key Reason Paterno should leave
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno can't figure out how to beat Michigan and for that reason he needs to retire
Joe Paterno was blaming himself, not the players, after his Penn State football team lost to Michigan in its Big Ten opener 14-9.
That’s a noble thing for any coach to do. But Joe must stop and think: his team has lost nine straight to Michigan's football team. Maybe that factor will give the Penn State coach reason to finally decide it’s time to retire.
It’s not that Paterno doesn’t deserve his place in college football history. Obviously he does. He’s as great and as classy of a coach that’s been in any sport on any level.
To Paterno’s credit, when Penn State was suffering through lean seasons, he got through it and has brought Penn State back up to national prominence. He has made sure his program gets the long-term credit that it richly deserves.
But when a national power loses nine straight to one team, something is deadly wrong. There’s no reason Penn State should have lost to a team that couldn’t even beat Appalachian State.
Michigan still dominates
It seems like regardless of how good or how bad Penn State is and how good or how bad Michigan is, the Wolverines prevail. Sure, Michigan is an established national powerhouse. But the Wolverines should be beatable for a team like Penn State.
Most other Big Ten teams have had better success against Michigan than Penn State.
Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr has been heavily criticized by the Ann Arbor News and Detroit Free Press and Detroit News for having problems beating Ohio State in recent years. But it’s not like he’s lost nine straight. Current Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has a 5-1 record against Michigan. His predecessor, John Cooper, was 2-10-1 against the Wolverines.
That was ironic considering that Cooper, as coach at Arizona State, had beaten Michigan in the 1987 Rose Bowl and speculation was that this win motivated Ohio State officials to give Cooper the job.
A loss to a mediocre Michigan team two years ago cost Paterno a crack at the national championship.
If futility against Michigan cost John Cooper his job at Ohio State, why not the 80-year-old skipper at Penn State?
Paterno would have hard shoes to fill
It’s not that a successor to Paterno will turn around the fortunes for Penn State against Michigan. But it couldn’t hurt. Penn State deserves much better than 0-9 against Michigan. A strong season will likely save Paterno’s job for another season.
Chances are, JoePa will step down prior to his 90th birthday, but there’s no guarantees. But he should not wait for the losing streak against Michigan to hit 10, 11, 12 or more games. He needs to help Penn State restore its football prestige.
Penn State needs to do what Ohio State did and remove a coach who can’t beat Michigan in Big Ten play. Until that happens, Penn State cannot return to true national prominence.
He's still on top
Paterno still has time to quit while he’s on top. That would be a classy thing for a classy coach to do. He’s also doing it in the classy way. Joe Paterno deserves to go out in style. That’s why he should avoid another loss to Michigan and resign at the end of the season. He should do it for himself and most important of all, he should do it for his beloved Penn State football program.
