Blue White Illustrated

thy than the historic milestones that Paterno was approaching: Bear Bryant's career victories record, for example, or career win No. 400, or the Division I victories record, which belonged to Eddie Robinson before Paterno broke it in his final game as head coach last October. Paterno himself routinely down- played the importance of those milestones, but the rest of us tend- ed to dwell on them. And when we weren't dwelling on them, we were wondering: How much longer? For years, Paterno's retirement plans – or lack thereof – kept Penn State followers preoccupied. Even in the months leading up to the 2011 sea- son, he was hinting that he planned to keep going for a few more years. No matter how long this university stands, there will never be another Joe Paterno. None of his successors will ever coach as long or accrue as much power or gain as much fame as he did, and no amount of visits to the Philipsburg Kiwanis Club will change that. And that's not necessarily a bad POINTING THE WAY O'Brien combined his coaching responsibilities with a series of speaking engagements throughout the spring. Patrick Mansell were wondering whether a little- known NFL assistant coach was up to the challenge. And so the outreach began almost immediately. O'Brien was preparing for the Super Bowl when he did a series of one-on-one phone inter- views with Penn State beat writers. He also took part in a conference call with reporters on signing day, during which he talked freely about Penn State's incoming freshmen. A few weeks later, he invited the media to one of the team's 5:15 a.m. workouts, wrapping it up with what was likely the first predawn news conference in school history. He's been doing additional inter- views whenever there's a hole in his schedule, one of which took place at 6:30 a.m. If nothing else, hitting deadline won't be a problem under the new coaching regime. The paradox of O'Brien's outreach effort is that even as he's worked the crowds, Penn State's focal point has become more diffuse, less ori- ented toward the personality and accomplishments of the program's leader. That's partly because O'Brien hasn't won any games yet. As a head coach, he's 0-0. But what if it also reflects something less tan- gible, an unease with the elevation of individuals over institutions? Penn State is well known for its nameless jerseys and its insistence on the primacy of the team. In his autobiography, "Paterno: By the Book," Paterno explains the Nittany Lions' mind-set by taking readers inside their locker room: "We remind ourselves of what kind of team we are: not a team of I's and me's, but a team of we and us. 'We are Penn State,' we chant, to remind ourselves of our special symbols: those black shoes, those plain uniforms with no glitter and no names. A Penn Stater doesn't have to let the whole world know, by putting six Nittany Lions on his W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M helmet, that he made six big plays. When he scores a touchdown, he doesn't dance and go berserk in the end zone. When a Penn Stater goes on that field he expects to make a touchdown." Paterno himself abided by that code of conduct, living about as modest a lifestyle as an American sports icon could possibly live. But more by accident than by design, the Penn State football program became more individualistic as the years went on. With his two national champi- onships and five undefeated sea- sons, as well as his philanthropic efforts on behalf of the university, Paterno eventually came to over- shadow almost everything else asso- ciated with the program. Penn State's conference and national championship aspirations – the topic of seemingly every preseason media day during the 1980s and '90s – began to seem less newswor- thing. One of Paterno's great achievements was that he built a program that sold itself. In the final years of his career, he had less and less to do with its promotion, bow- ing out of the Alumni Association's Evening With Joe events and mak- ing only cameo appearances on the radio call-in show. And still, people came out to the stadium and watched on TV. You get the feeling that even though fan support has been hurt by the Sandusky scandal, by STEP and by a 14-33 record against Top-25 opponents since the 2000 season, Penn State will prove more resilient than its skeptics may think. The key, however, won't be to cre- ate a cult of personality around O'Brien. The attempts to do that – particularly those ubiquitous "BIL- LIEVE" T-shirts and banners – have seemed clumsy and unnecessary. What the Nittany Lions really need to do once all the off-season promo- tional work is done is to get back in the habit of fielding championship- caliber football teams. Chicken wings may taste good, but they're empty calories. Victories over Ohio State and Wisconsin? Now those are worth savoring. J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 2 39

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