Wednesday’s Daily Five: Paterno set to retire but will he get to go out on his own terms?

*Musings, Rumblings and Opinions*

1. Will Paterno get to go out on his own terms and should he?: Joe Paterno this morning has issued a statement indicating that he will retire at the end of the season.

” I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.

I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in
mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have
been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.

That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of
this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can. This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.

My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my
life doing everything I can to help this University.”

It became clear yesterday that there was no way Paterno would coach next season but retiring at the end of the season is a scenario where Joe gets to go out on his own terms.

Now it’s a wait and see situation whether Paterno is eventually forced to resign and not coach another game.

He has yet to hear anything from the Board of Trustee’s.

2. Consensus emerging: CLEAN HOUSE NOW: The Penn State scandal becomes more of a mess just about every hour and Penn State officials have been their own worst nightmare, making things worse with a terrible PR strategy of going into hiding.

President Graham Spanier had to step up and show some leadership and he didn’t….now it’s too late and rumors speculating that Tom Ridge could became the schools next president.

Spanier has known about the shower incident for nine years, kept quiet to protect his buddies and even still defended Gary Schultz and Tim Curley over the weekend, once the indictment was made public. There should be no surprise why there’s outrage towards him.

Spanier should be forced to resign immediately and you can make a strong argument that Joe Paterno should hold a joint resignation press conference with Spanier.

Penn State needs to clean house now!

It’s a shame that the end of Joe Paterno is going to come to this but it’s a bigger shame that the likes of Paterno, Spanier, Shultz, Curley and Michael McQueary turned a blind eye and could have got a pedophile off the streets who was in their backyard.

3. Should fans support Penn State’s Football team vs Nebraska?: I say, yes, especially when it comes to supporting the players. In the grand scheme of life this game isn’t important but the players had nothing to do with this situation and don’t deserve to have fans taking their frustrations on them.

Penn State football is a cult and if there’s any kind of boycott on Saturday or backlash against the team, it will likely be a small number.

4. Impressive Feat for Roethlisberger: Ben Roethlisberger on Sunday reached the 25,000 yard passing mark in just 3,109 passes, the second fastest in NFL history, to Kurt Warner who did it in 3,076 passing attempts. A pretty impressive feat for a quarterback who pundits even as late as last season, still were calling him (laughable) a QB “who manages the game”. Roethlisberger reaching that mark so quickly shouldn’t be a surprise as his career average of over 8 yards per attempt is often overlooked.

So far, Roethlisberger has thrown for 25,134 yards in his career on 3,121 pass attempts.

5. Columbus not the best landing spot for Letestu: Mark Letestu better find his game quickly in Columbus and it might not be the best situation for a struggling player trying to find his game.

“We like the player,” Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson said via Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. “It does not fill an immediate need on the roster, but you can never have too many centers. We think he’s a top-9 talent. And we think he can help us win games.”

The Jackets are a team who could have a new GM and new coach at any minute and they’re a team that is deep with centers as Portzline writes, “The Jackets have a plethora of centers: Jeff Carter, Derick Brassard, Antoine Vermette, Sammy Pahlsson, Derek MacKenzie and rookie Ryan Johansen, though Carter is currently injured and Johansen is playing on the wing.”

Letestu is going to have to make an impact quick.