Paterno To Return For 46th Season

For Joe Paterno, the R-word doesn’t mean what everyone thinks it means.

No, the R-word for Paterno is return – for his 46th season as coach of the Nittany Lions, the final year of his three-year contract, a chance to add to his major college record for victories that stands at 401 going into Saturday’s game at Beaver Stadium against No. 10 Michigan State.

Paterno’s health issues of last summer, plus the inconsistent play of the Lions in their first six games coupled with Penn State’s dawdling pace on recruiting for 2011, led to speculation that the coach would call it quits at the end of this season.

But Paterno, who turns 84 on Dec. 21, said he is looking forward to returning because of the youth of this team, which suffered a number of injuries that hampered its progress.

“I think we’ve struggled a little bit this year with the youth and the injuries and the whole bit,” he said during his weekly teleconference. “We’re not where I want us to be yet. But I think with a good spring and a preseason practice, we could be a pretty good football team next year, and I’d like to be a part of it.”

The Nittany Lions (7-4, 4-3 Big Ten) have just eight seniors out of 22 starters on offense and defense. Injuries have been a problem; 17 players have missed all or part of the season because of them.

Last summer, it looked as if Paterno might miss some time as well after battling an ailment brought about by an adverse reaction to antibiotics. However, Paterno said later that the illness had absolutely no effect on him this season.

“What I had in the summer wasn’t anything as serious as people tried to make it,” he said. “It wasn’t that serious. That was never even a consideration as far as anything I wanted to do.

“The year’s been hard because we are a young team. We’ve had an inordinate amount of injuries.”

The Lions have won four of their last five after a 3-3 start. Paterno captured his 400th victory on Nov. 6.

Paterno has drawn criticism over recruiting. Although it has only 14 scholarships to offer to the Class of 2011, Penn State has received just five oral commitments to date, the lowest figure in the Big Ten. Observers feel the paucity of recruits is due to the fact that Paterno has not traveled to see a high school player since visiting Terrelle Pryor in February 2008.

Paterno said Tuesday he does not travel because there is too much “hoopla” when he comes into a high school or a town.

“The business about recruiting is a difficult one for me at this stage, not in the sense that I don’t want to do it physically,” he said. “But if I go into a town these days, it’s an alumni meeting. There’s always a lot of people coming around, and there’s a lot of hoopla.”

Paterno’s decision to return did not surprise middle linebacker Chris Colasanti, one of the seniors who will play his final home game on Saturday.

“He’s still vocal and energetic on the field,” Colasanti said. “He still likes to coach. He has fun with it and we see that, and we feed off that. I expected him to come back.”