Joe Pa and His 400th Win - Should We Care?

What do I care about Buckeye fans??

Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno currently sits at 399 wins in his coaching career. If you are new to college football (welcome!) that is a lot of wins. Much has been made of Joe Pa's career and impending record in recent weeks, but I am going to tell this tale a little differently. Some of you might think I am mean spirited or trying to darken a great moment, but this is an Ohio State blog, and I am an Ohio State fan, so I am going to call this as I see it. Mind you, this is my opinion only, but as always it will be backed up with fact (and proven correct).

Before I begin, I do want to say that I do respect many of the things Paterno has done in his career. His dedication to his school is unmatched by anyone. Ever. I have always laughed at Browns fans who said that Tressel is going to coach the Browns. Tressel's dream job is Ohio State, and I never see him coaching anywhere else, he is totally dedicated to the Buckeyes. Paterno has the same level of dedication as Tress, but has had it for FOUR times as long. Also, he has an extremely low salary (relatively speaking). He makes slightly more than $1 million per year, much less than guys like Saban, Meyer, and even Coach Tressel. And I don't remember any scandals or excess criminal activity at Penn State, unlike Florida State under Bobby Bowden, UNC under Butch Davis, USC under Pete Carroll, and especially Florida under Urban Meyer.

Alright, that is more Joe Pa love than I have ever shown in the rest of my life combined. Back to the original point I wanted to make with this article, which is that Paterno's milestone is more or less a joke. Paterno has won only 3 Big Ten Titles in his entire 44 year career! What's that you say? Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Penn State has only been playing in the Big Ten since 1993. Fine, so Paterno has only won 3 Big Ten Titles in 17 years. That's much better.

It also brings up another point I wanted to make, and that point is that Paterno's two National Championships came before he played in a legitimate conference. Hell, they came before he played in any conference. Isn't that the one knock people have against Boise State and TCU and Utah, that it doesn't matter if they go undefeated every year because they don't play a grinding schedule? If the BCS had existed during Penn State's two titles under Joe Pa, the computers would have laughed them out of the room, much they they do to Boise State, TCU and Utah at the end of every year. The Big East was founded in 1979, the ACC in 1953, and the Big Ten has been around forever. If Paterno and Penn State wanted to join a power conference, they could have pushed to do so 20 years earlier. The fact is that they liked playing easier schedules and still getting the same amount of praise.

	Big Ten
Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Win %
Ohio State	106	29	1	0.779412
Michigan	94	42	0	0.691176
Penn State	86	50	0	0.632353
Wisconsin	79	54	3	0.580882
Iowa	71	64	1	0.522059
	Overall
Team	Wins	Losses	Ties	Win %
Ohio State	170	43	1	0.794393
Michigan	146	64	0	0.695238
Penn State	147	62	0	0.703349
Wisconsin	144	66	4	0.672897
Iowa	119	86	1	0.57767

 Now, some hard core facts, thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Rich Exner. Mind you, this data is up to and including the 2008 season, and only take into account records since Penn State joined the league, in 1993: Notice how the second tier teams in the league (Iowa, Wisconsin, and yes, Penn State) see a significant drop in winning percentage from their overall record to their Big Ten record. Meanwhile, the big dogs in the league (Ohio State and Michigan) carry over their non conference dominance to conference play. This tells me that, assuming all these teams schedule similar out of conference schedules (I know that, too, is a stretch. I would say that, at least recently, Ohio State and Michigan play tougher non-conference schedules than Penn State), Penn State just can't win as consistently playing against tougher competition.

Since joining the Big Ten, Paterno has had 7 double digit win seasons in 17 years (41% of the time). Compare that to before the Big Ten, when he reached double digit wins in 14 out of 27 seasons (51% of the time) and the evidence is piling on.

If you want to say that Joe Paterno has done great things for Penn State, has won and won with class, is a wonderful person and family man, then that is fine, I will believe you. But the one thing that I will NEVER get over is that he isn't even really the coach now. In the early 2000's, Penn State was a very, very bad football team, going 5-7 in 2000, 5-6 in 2001, 9-4 in 2002, 3-9 (1-7 Big Ten) in 2003, and 4-7 (2-6 Big Ten) in 2004. Then, Joe Paterno ADMITTED that he was giving much of the control of the team to his assistants. What were the results? Since giving up control after 2004, Penn State has gone 51-13 (not counting this season). Penn State is now better when Paterno is not coaching.

Do Penn State fans think about him?

If that is too hard for you to handle, watch Paterno on the sidelines of a game. He has no headphones on. How does he communicate with his offensive and defensive coordinators in the booth? He doesn't. Tom Bradley (defense) and Galen Hall (offense) call the entire game with absolutely zero input from the "head coach."

All this and I haven't even mentioned how he has had so many surgeries on his hip he shouldn't even be on the sidelines. Look, Joe Paterno was a very good football coach, who ran a clean program, never threatened to leave his school for more money, and won a lot of games. And for that, I do respect him. But passing Bear Bryant and keeping up with Bobby Bowden clouded his judgement, and forced him to stay on at Penn State far longer than he should have. He no longer draws up offensive or defensive gameplans, or even visits recruits. He is hurting his program, but has developed too much of an ego to realize it. And for that, I do not respect him.

To answer my question in the title, no, we should not really care. In my opinion, every win from 2005 on might as well be credited to Tom Bradley, leaving Paterno stuck at 343 wins. When he starts coaching again, I will start counting again.