Retirement for Paterno? Maybe in his 90s

CHICAGO — Joe Paterno knew it was coming. Everybody in the room knew it was coming.

When the 82-year-old Penn State coaching legend stepped to the microphone at the Big Ten football media days on Monday, the first question was, as might be expected, about retirement.

“Oh, I miss you guys,” Paterno said to the writers and broadcasters in the hotel ballroom where the annual two-day Big Ten event got underway.

Later, Paterno did joke about his age, though, when the subject of Penn State’s scheduling came up.

“I try to stay out of scheduling. I can’t be looking at who we’re going to be playing in 2020,” he said. “I ‘m dumb, but I’m not that dumb. I’m optimistic, but I’m not that optimistic.”

Some other notable lines from the Big Ten coaches:

• Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez, who was accused of not “getting” the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry and Michigan tradition during his unpleasant introductory season in Ann Arbor last fall, seemed to be working to change that impression.

He called the OSU-Michigan game the greatest rivalry in college football and said he couldn’t see the Wolverines ever playing a regular-season game later than the Ohio State game.

“I would think not. I’m not going to mess with tradition. I’d think our season would always end with Ohio State,” Rodriguez said.

• Wisconsin coach Brett Bielema said the homefield advantage at Penn State doesn’t stop when the game is over.

“You go to Penn State and beat them and you don’t have hot water. He (Paterno) has a little switch by his office, I swear,” Bielema said.

• Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald referenced the hyperventilation at last week’s Southeastern Conference media days over South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier not voting for Florida’s Tim Tebow as the preseason first-team All-SEC quarterback when he opened by saying, “I want to make sure I make my vote crystal clear. I did vote for Tim Tebow.”

Fitzgerald also brought to mind Woody Hayes calling Michigan “that team up north” when he called Notre Dame “the team in South Bend.”

• When Illinois coach Ron Zook was asked the significance of having 13 Ohio players on his roster, including six in his freshman class, he said, “You recruit friends and family. I’m from Ohio. It’s hard to go into a state where you don’t know anybody.”

On a more serious note, all the coaches fielded questions about the Big Ten’s lack of success in big games against highly regarded teams from other parts of the country.

The Big Ten was 1-6 in bowl games last season. Ohio State lost back-to-back BCS national championship games to Southeastern Conference teams after the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

OSU and Penn State were crushed by Southern California last season and the Trojans embarrassed the Illini in the Rose Bowl two years ago. The Buckeyes are 0-9 in bowl games against SEC teams.

One of the solutions that has been proposed is that the Big Ten play games later in the year so its teams are not idle for two weeks longer than many of their bowl opponents.

Illinois is trying that this year, with two games after its final Big Ten game. The Illini will face Cincinnati on Nov. 27 and Fresno State on Dec. 5.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel is not sure he buys into less time off as a solution to winning more bowl games.

“The difference between 46 days or 38 or something like that, I’m not sure it’s that significant. When we played Miami in 2002, I think we had 42 days and it worked out. Other times, we 45 or 46 and it didn’t work out,” he said.

Some coaches, like Rodriguez, sounded interested in the idea. But even he admitted there is a simpler solution to changing the perception of the Big Ten around the country.

“All it would take is one or two big wins,” the Michigan coach said.

Zook agreed. “Until we go win the bowl games and, obviously, win the games out of conference, there’s not a whole lot we can say.”