FLASH
FORWARD
T H E B I G P I C T U R E
is second season as head foot-
ball coach at Penn State hadn't
even begun, but already Joe Pa-
terno was feeling the heat.
Year one had been a disappointment.
His team had gone into its /nal game
teetering on the brink of a losing season,
and even though it managed to pull that
game out, defeating Pitt on the road to
/nish 5-5, no one was satis/ed.
Worse still, there was ample reason to
believe that year two would be just as
bad. Paterno's roster heading into the
1967 season was a riddle. He knew he
had talented players, but the best ones
were sophomores who had never seen
action. He would need to show patience,
but time was a luxury he didn't have, as
the fans were already in open revolt. He
was getting angry letters, and a few fans
even had the nerve to call him at home to
complain. As he recounted in "Paterno
by the Book," his 1989 autobiography,
"A0er that /rst dismal season of win-
ning /ve and losing /ve, I said to myself,
'Start counting your days in this job.' "
As it turned out, Penn State's plight
wasn't quite as dire as it seemed. Not that
anyone really
was counting, but Paterno
ended up spending 16,700 days on the
job, thanks in no small measure to that
contingent of seemingly unprepared un-
derclassmen. It included Jim Kates, Steve
Smear, Dennis Onkotz and Neal Smith,
and it spearheaded Penn State's transfor-
mation from nonentity to national cham-
pionship contender. Paterno turned to
The path back to national relevance is coming into view
2 0 1 5 P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L
H
