TodayPaterno: ‘We had our chances’
PSU coach plans to be on the sideline again after tough loss.
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Associated Press
Joe Paterno addressed the media on Friday, a day after Penn State fell to USC 38-24.
LOS ANGELES — The coach thought his team had a chance.
In retrospect, they did. But Joe Paterno summed it up best when he said his team committed too many penalities and too many mistakes.
Paterno addressed the media for an hour at the team hotel in East Los Angeles Friday morning to put a cap on the 2008 college football season.
“I thought we had a good shot at them,” Paterno, who was licking his wounds after a 38-24 loss to USC, said. “I think the biggest problem is people didn’t realize how good they are. They’re really good and I was not blowing smoke when I said I thought they were as good as any team in the country.”
“We practiced well, I thought we were going to play well.”
Paterno said he was troubled by the logistics surrounding the bowl and travel times to get from place to place. He also became annoyed with the media obligations informing ABC that he would not do an interview with them because all of the face time with the media was too overwhelming.
“There’s a limit of how much you can expose your football team to and if I just give in all the time I don’t know how I’m going to continue to coach.”
It’s possible he may be fined for not doing the interview, but Paterno shrugged it off by saying “who’s going to fine me? ABC?”
As for whether or not defensive ends Aaron Maybin and Maurice Evans turn pro, Paterno hinted that his advice may not matter to either player.
“Oh I don’t care. Maybin’s gotta do what he wants to do. I mean, there may be one or two pop up, I don’t know.”
He was later asked if he feels he has guys that are NFL-ready.
“Until I have to answer that, I don’t feel I want to answer it. If one or two of them come to me and say, ‘Hey, what do you think?’ I’ll try to give them as honest of an answer as I can,” Paterno said.
“Now, if somebody comes to me within the next week or two and says ‘Hey I think I want to go,’ I’ll call a couple of friends of mine in the league and say, ‘Where do you think they’re going to go’ so I can be honest with them. I mean, I think if a kid’s going to be a No. 1 draft pick, then I think at this stage, obviously he’s got a tough decision to make.”
Paterno said he has heard the chatter about Maybin, but nothing substantial about Maurice Evans, and said he declined to comment further on Evans’ choice.
With rehab behind him and a full offseason to continue the recovery from hip replacement surgery, Paterno said he plans to be back on the sideline for sure in 2009 and said he would have liked to have coached the Rose Bowl from the sideline, but couldn’t take the three or four hours of walking around and getting tired.
“I don’t know whether it’s important for the team, but it’s important for me. I’m frustrated. That was a very frustrating ... I don’t think I could have changed anything. I don’t mean to indicate that I could because the staff has done such a great job all year, but you know, you’re up there and there’s old Pete Carroll barking at the officials and grabbing them and the whole bit and trying to get a break here or there and I’m sitting upstairs,” Paterno said. “I’m not down there telling some of those guys, why don’t you wake up, that kind of thing. But, even just being around the kids and when things start to go bad, you’d like to be around them and just grab them and the whole bit. So, that was frustrating.”
The veteran head coach did admit that before his hip replacement he thought that physically he may not be able to keep going.
“No, I think everybody, when you’re my age and you’ve got aches and pains, you can’t do some things you’d like to do. I used to love to walk. I used to log 15-20 miles a week. I’m anxious to get back to doing that. I’m anxious to get back, even in the fall, on Fridays before I’d go to squad meetings, I used to walk down the woods back behind my house ... I’d go down there and it would give me a chance to get some ideas in my head. I feel good.”
The highlight of Paterno’s season ending wrap up was a surprise stop in by former college coaches turned Fox analysts Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson. Switzer urged Paterno to not retire, saying “the hell with them bastards, you just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“We don’t want to interrupt this thing here,” Johnson said. “We just happened to be passing by.
“There’s nothing wrong with that hip.”
Paterno could offer no further update on the injuries to running backs Evan Royster and Stephon Green. Both were going to be evaluated upon returning to State College. He also wasn’t sure of the status of right tackle Dennis Landon who left the game with an injury.
Penn State’s coaching staff will have a full staff meeting in State College today to begin preparations for the 2009 campaign and spring practice.
NOTES: Paterno said the staff will watch film and see what might be the best position for returning linebacker Sean Lee, who missed this season with a torn ACL. ... Penn State kicker Kevin Kelly finished with 78 career field goals, good enough for No. 8 on the all-time NCAA list. ...Kelly also finished with 425 points, second in NCAA history for kick scoring. ... USC’s five plays of 20 yards or more were the most of such a play given up by Penn State in a single game all season. ... Mark Sanchez’s 429 yards of offense were the most given up by Penn State since 1993. ...linebacker Navorro Bowman posted five tackles for loss, a record for a Nittany Lions player in a bowl. ... Penn State fell to 5-3 all-time against the Pac-10 and lost in a bowl game west of the Mississippi River for the first time ever under Paterno.
