Paterno hopes new stadium,
three new coaches boost morale
Editor's Note: This is part eight of a 10-part
series examining every football team in the Big Ten other than Purdue.
The Purdue Preview Tailgate Guide will appear Friday.
By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor
Joe Paterno is old — 74 to be exact. And oftentimes
old men need new things.
Paterno, in his 36th year as Penn State's head
coach, has several of them for this season.
After the Nittany Lions went 5-7 last season —
their first sub-.500 season in 12 years — three new coaches got
hired.
 "I
don't think I did a very good job last year," Paterno admitted. "For
the first time in a long time I have three new coaches who bring new
ideas."
Those three new coaches are Kenny Carter, Brian
Norwood and Ron Vanderlinden.
Carter will coach the receivers. He spent the last
three years as the Pittsburgh running backs coach, the Louisiana State
outside linebackers coach and The Citadel's assistant head coach.
Norwood will coach the safeties. He coached defensive
backs at Texas Tech last season after spending four seasons in the same
position at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Vanderlinden will coach the linebackers, which
include Penn State's top returning player, Shamar Finney. His coaching
career began in 1978 and has included stops at Michigan, Northwestern
and Colorado. He won a national championship with Colorado in 1990.
The main assistants for Penn State — offensive
coordinator Fran Ganter and defensive coordinator Tom Bradley —
have been at Penn State with Paterno since the '70s. However, Paterno
admits that it will be nice to have some variety.
Paterno's son Jay, a former junior college quarterback,
will coach the quarterbacks for a second straight season after four
years as the tight ends coach. However, this year he'll have a player
with a small amount of game experience — junior Matt Senneca.
"(Jay) relates well to players," Senneca said in
the Penn State information guide. "He's laid back but gets his points
across and gets us very well-prepared."
Senneca was the top reserve under departed senior
Rashard Casey the last two seasons. For his career, the 6-foot-3, 228-pound
back is 21-of-48 for 204 yards. He'll have Eric McCoo (692 yards and
five touchdowns last season) and Omar Easy (329 all-purpose yards last
season) behind him in the backfield.
All of Joe Paterno's assistants will have to wait,
however, to battle for the head coaching job.
"I feel great; I really do," said Paterno, who
has two years left on his contract. "I've inherited good genes. I'm
healthy and I enjoy it. If I feel as good two years from now as I do
now, I may ask to stay longer. Honestly, I haven't even thought about
retirement.
With 322 career wins as a head coach, Paterno needs
just two victories to become the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division
I-A history.
"I'm not really a record-oriented kind of guy,"
Paterno said. "I like the competition. (Bear) Bryant and I were both
fortunate enough to stay at one place for a long time."
Paterno is quick to point out that he is still
far from breaking former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson's NCAA record
of 408 wins.
Along with three new coaches and a new quarterback,
Penn State will play in a stadium that underwent $93 million in renovations
the last few years and will seat 106,537 fans. Beaver Stadium had 93,967
seats last season, and that helped Penn State finish fourth in the nation
behind Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio State in average home attendance.
"When I came to Penn State we had 29,000 permanent
seats," Paterno said. "We'll have a magnificent stadium, and it will
be fun to play in."
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