Two interesting stories about Penn State head coach Joe Paterno:

Paterno’s sign to president, AD: Keep off the lawn – Post-Gazette

Penn State president Graham Spanier says Paterno won’t be offered another contract after the upcoming season, but does Joe need a contract to be head coach?

Not in his mind.

Does he need to be on the sideline to be head coach?

Not necessarily, in his mind.

Does he have to be at practice during the week and in the meeting rooms to be head coach?

Not really, in his mind.

Given its posture to this point, you might wonder if the university thinks it would be overstepping to insist that the head coach be alive.

Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley are in a kind of self-induced paralysis from which there is no evident escape. Shooed off Paterno’s lawn once already with their sample resignation papers, the administrators seem no closer to any sort of succession plan than was in place in 1978.

Joe Paterno: hardly ordinary – Reading Eagle

I think maybe I made a mistake last year. Jay (Penn State assistant coach Jay Paterno) kept talking about playing Clark a little more to change things. I turned him down on that because I didn’t want to get into where (Anthony) Morelli was looking over his shoulder. I didn’t think that would be good for the kind of kid that Morelli is. This year it might be a whole different situation.

Maybe he is just trying to make his son Jay look good, but coddling Morelli was a disaster and supports my brother’s theory that JoePa has “lost the will to win.”

It could be a very interesting season. I think it will be better than last year, but it should be much better. Does the head coach have it in him? I am in no hurry to see him go, having Joe Paterno as head coach is a special thing, but only if he is really JOE PATERNO.