A lot of this is about Paterno, though. It has to be. Penn State went through Michigan State easily yesterday, winning, 49-18, to finish the regular season 11-1, win the Big Ten championship, and earn a berth in the Rose Bowl (assuming some miracle doesn't catapult them into the BCS title game).
On another coach's resume, that might be a signature year. On Paterno's, it is just another season that piles up in the mathematical snowstorm of his career. Yesterday's win was the 800th in the history of the program. Paterno has been on the staff for 487 of those wins, including 383 as the head coach, which is the record for major college coaches. The Rose Bowl will mark Penn State's 35th bowl appearance in his 43 years of coaching.
It's a long time, a lot of games, but the latest stretch might have been the most satisfying for Paterno. He was nearly marginalized within college football just four years ago as Penn State piled up mediocre seasons and the coach became viewed as a cantankerous relic who didn't know when to leave the stage. Players got into trouble with the police with unsettling regularity, and the great edifice he had built appeared to be crumbling around the edges.
Since then, the Nittany Lions have gone 40-10, won three bowl games, finished No. 3 in one of those seasons, are in the top 10 again, and now get the Rose Bowl. If not for a bad one-point loss at Iowa two weeks ago, the team had a decent shot at the national championship.
That's not bad for a guy who will turn 82 before the next game. It is a remarkable comeback, even if part of it has been accomplished while watching from the press box and not being as involved at a physical level as he would like to be. Is it vindication for all those things that were said about him and the program?
