Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Associated Press
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.
College football’s elder statesman has one of his youngest teams in ages.
Joe Paterno’s roster at Penn State includes nearly five dozen freshmen and sophomores, and just eight senior starters — one of the factors JoePa cited for the second-half collapse last week in a 24-point loss at No. 8 Ohio State.
Chances for a conference title disappeared weeks ago, though it doesn’t mean that Paterno is ready to use the last two regular season games of 2010 as a warm-up for his younger players for 2011.
“No, I don’t think that’s fair to the kids ... who will be leaving us. And you know, they have worked hard. They are entitled to have the best season they possibly can have,” Paterno said. “We are worrying about this year game-by-game. We’ll worry about next year as soon as this season’s over.”
At 6-4 (3-3 Big Ten), victories Saturday against Indiana in Landover, Md., and on Thanksgiving weekend at home vs. No. 11 Michigan State would solidify the Nittany Lions’ chances for a third consecutive New Year’s Day bowl game.
But the outlook looks dramatically different from a week ago, when Penn State was riding a three-game winning streak and an emotional, come-from-behind win over Northwestern to snag Paterno’s 400th career victory.
Paterno is sticking with Matt McGloin as the starting quarterback after the redshirt sophomore threw two interceptions returned for touchdowns by the Buckeyes in the second half last week. McGloin did toss two first-half touchdown passes before the team got overrun after halftime.
Ohio State counterpart Terrelle Pryor led a romp over a defense that played most of the second half without perhaps its best player in linebacker Michael Mauti (right shoulder).
It added up to the Nittany Lions’ fourth loss this season by 20 or more points.
“You are bound to have those days when ... you can’t make something happen for yourself, and anything adverse that happens, is probably a little bit more dramatic than it would be when you get all of the kids,” Paterno said.
Paterno also expects to have tailbacks Evan Royster (left knee) and Stephfon Green available for Saturday.