Coach Joe Paterno

The book I'm reading about Coach Paterno notes that the 1979 Sugar Bowl loss to Alabama really ate at the Coach. That's the one where Joe called a running play on fourth and inches at the Alabama goal line and the Nittanys were stopped cold. As way of background, if the receiver, Fitzkee, had any guts, he would have scored on first down. Then Coach Paterno still believes they got in on a second down running play.

Anyway, this book points out that Coach Paterno noted in his autobiography that he wanted to call a pass play on fourth down. His assistants told him to call the running play that cost the team the national championship. Coach Paterno says that's the only time he let his assistants talk him out of a play in which he really believed. That play is probably the biggest blot on Coach Paterno's resume, and now, years later, to find out that Coach Paterno didn't want to call that play at all, it was the assistants' fault. That's really eye-opening.