It's Time Joe.....

373 career wins, 2 National Championships, 2 Big Ten Championships, 5 undefeated seasons, and 24 career bowl wins. These are just some of many accomplishments made by Joe Paterno in his career. As well as building Penn State into one of the most prestigious universities in the country by giving back to PSU in fundraisers. Joe Paterno has built PSU into a college football powerhouse throughout his career and will continue to be a powerhouse years after he's done at dear ole' State.

However when will Joe call it quits? When will he be done so that the PSU football program can name a coach that will revive PSU to its glory that it once was?

For the present, Joe is not "restoring the roar" at PSU and it's evident. Year after year PSU fans have to endure watching the same old routine. Beating teams they should beat and losing the teams that well are not expected to win. In this day and age, PSU should NEVER be expected to lose a game against anyone. However, every year they are expected to lose teams such as Ohio State and Michigan, the annual top two teams in the conference every year. It's clear that PSU can't be part of the elite anymore evidenced by their 8-20 record against the "big boys" since 1993 (year PSU joined the Big Ten) and obviously the "big boys" are OSU and UM. Hell PSU is not even doing well in their own conference. Since 2000, PSU is 32-32 against the Big Ten. Also since 2000 PSU has only finished above fourth place in the Big Ten ONCE. Any normal college football fan would tell you that is not Penn State football. That is not the way Penn State football was once played. PSU fans have gone from thinking "I wonder what big time bowl game we'll go to?" to "Hopefully OSU and UM don't embarrass us THAT bad this year."

Reason why PSU is doing through a decline of their football program is mostly because of one man and one man only....Joe Paterno. Every year PSU gets out-recruited by OSU and UM, check the recruiting sites, that will show you all you need to know. Joe has only visited a recruit ONE time this past recruiting year and most likely this up coming year as well. Big time coaches do NOT do that. Alabama coach Nick Saban visited almost all his recruits this past year, same with Jim Tressel, same with Les Miles and so on and so forth. PSU can't let Joe bring the program down in terms of recruiting, in some people's eyes, that's the most important thing in college football. You need to get your players, develop them, then you'll have a great team and honestly PSU is not doing that at all. They can't do that because they don't know if Joe will still be here in the next couple years.

It will show you that not only is OSU and UM getting better players overall but especially better players on the offensive side. Which brings me to my next point in the old, slow and typical PSU offense that seems never to improve. Only one year was the PSU offense actually dynamic and could score points and that was 2005 thanks to Michael Robinson. Without his athletic ability to scramble around and make plays on his own that offense would've probably been mediocre as well. Just watch most of the games where PSU either has to play OSU or UM or a top 25 team on the road, you'll see how most of them go. The defense always plays great, always plays top notch year after year yet you watch the offense which seems like it's miles behind.

What's also disturbing about the decline of PSU football is the number of players that are getting into legal trouble. For what PSU stands for and for so many years PSU has always has had a good reputation for being a clean program it's beyond embarrassing to see almost week after week this past year a new player getting in trouble. Joe doesn't have control of the program anymore which lets these kids get away with it. He can't relate to the players anymore which makes them that more likely to do something stupid. Yea I realize they're college kids and all college kids do something stupid once in a while but jeez you'd think that it would stop. It hasn't stop and it won't stop for a while until a new regime is placed. You never saw this at PSU 20 years ago, Joe would straighten them out and I always believed that he always will straighten them until all these recent crime related events that have been occurring.

Joe, Penn State loves you, college football loves you, everyone loves. It will be a sad day when you decide to retire but if you keep fighting to get an extension, the deeper you're digging the hole for the next coach to come in and try to bring PSU back where it should be. The way you brought PSU back from the grave in 2005 was great, you gave PSU respect across the country, however if you don't make 2008 your last, you'll be digging PSU right back into that grave.