Paterno no doubt wishes it were his coaching performance that is costing him his job. In fact, you don't have to go too far back to find him in Bryant's situation, losing too many games, and having fans suggest he was too old to coach the Nittany Lions.
But this has been a good season for Penn State, with its only loss going into this weekend being to, of all teams, Alabama. Everything was going well enough to quiet most of the critics who still felt that, at age 84, Paterno ought to hand over the head coaching duties to someone with a more modern approach to the game.
They will get their wish, but not the way anyone wanted it to happen. Paterno is leaving in disgrace, having failed to contact law enforcement officials in the face of allegations in 2002 that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually molested a young boy in the football team's shower.
The university's board announced Wednesday night that it was dumping Paterno and school president Graham B. Spanier after considering multiple allegations of child sexual abuse against Sandusky, who retired from coaching in 1999 to run a foundation he had started for underprivileged boys.
Paterno's own comments suggest he regrets having not done more after being told Sandusky may have acted improperly. He has asked for prayers for the alleged victims. Before he was fired, Paterno tried to manage the situation by announcing he would retire at the end of the season. But that decision was no longer his to make.
Bear Bryant, too, stayed too long at the dance. But the elderly miscues he made as a coach aren't comparable to what Paterno did.
