Some folks think the college game has passed Joe Paterno and left him in the dust, remnants of a bygone era using a bygone offense and cast aside by the gridiron powers that be.

I disagree – college football didn’t pass JoePa or even Penn State – it passed Penn State’s legacy.

Time has passed over programs like Penn State and Notre Dame. The teams are still occasionally good but at this point the only real difference in my mind is the ND alums demand a new coach every three seasons while Happy Valley sticks to it’s guns and the man that brought them into prominence.

The only problem is college football isn’t the same game. It’s not even the same since 1980.

The sport has bypassed the Lions and Irish not through their own fault, but through the fact that so many teams are now viable. The present USC squad excluded no one runs the table much anymore if they face a legit schedule. The ND and PSU fans surely remember teams that went 10-0. Those seasons are long gone.

Joe Paterno isn’t outdated, but the game he remembers coaching is. He used to coach in the 70s when 90% of college football was also-rans and never-weres. Now even the smaller conferences have teams that can surprise, cause matchup problems and recruit both in and out of state. He’s not coaching in the year 2005 and Notre Dame fans aren’t living in 2005.

Both have wild, crazy-haired expectations and aspirations.

Both are going to be sorely disappointed from here on out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.