Paterno won't comment on Bowden

Penn State coach Joe Paterno isn't always the chattiest guy, but he understands that weekly teleconferences with the media are part of his job description. So yesterday, the Nittany Lions' 82-year-old coaching legend dutifully answered questions about this past weekend's rout of Big Ten rival Illinois; Saturday's home game against Football Championship Subdivision opponent Eastern Illinois; the Panthers' quarterback, Iowa transfer Jake Christensen; the fact the Nits again are playing 12 games in as many weeks without a bye after enjoying such an off week in 2008, and the health of Penn State's standout linebacker, Sean Lee, and others.

What JoePa did not discuss - and this was by design - is the brouhaha down South involving college football's other octogenarian (well, almost) coaching legend, Florida State's Bobby Bowden.

Paterno was in a staff meeting yesterday morning when he excused himself to make a telephone call and, he advised his coaches, to engage in his weekly verbal sparring with the media.

"Somebody said, 'You'd better be ready to answer some questions about Bobby Bowden,' " Paterno said. "I said, 'What's going on?' And he said, 'Well, there's some pressure on Bobby.' I said, 'What I don't know, I can't talk about.' "

Sometimes ignorance, actual or professed, really is bliss.

When Paterno was in the throes of the worst stretch of his career, during which Penn State had four losing seasons in 5 years from 2000 through '04, a rising number of critics suggested that the game had passed the grand old man by. Even some of his more longtime supporters admitted to reluctantly climbing aboard the "Joe must go!" bandwagon.

Then Penn State turned it around in a major way in 2005, going 11-1, the beginning of a new era of prosperity in Happy Valley. Since the 2004 team limped in at 4-7, the Nits have gone 44-12 and again become a staple in the national polls. The anti-Paterno faction of a few short years ago is a lot less visible and strident.

Interesting that the turnaround season of '05 culminated in a triple-overtime, 26-23 victory over Florida State and Bowden in what was billed as maybe the last matchup of celebrated sideline dinosaurs.