Happy Valley needs a regime change

It’s time for change.

Not just in the White House, but at State College, where the blue and… It’s time for change.

Not just in the White House, but at State College, where the blue and white are in bad shape when it comes to football.

Penn State’s director of athletics, Timothy M. Curley, has to step in and make a bold move.

Get rid of head coach Joe Paterno.

Paterno has been part of the football program at Penn State for 55 years, and, from the looks of it, five years too many.

Paterno was one of the greatest coaches in the nation, but he is no longer. He is now 5-16 in his past 21 games. He directed the Penn State Nittany Lions to nine wins in 2002, but in the two seasons prior, he had a combined record of 10-13.

His staying is only hurting the program. Many recruits will not even think of Penn State because of the question mark behind Paterno’s name. Will he be there for all four years?

It’s time for a new coach — one who will be able to lead this team back to what it once was: a national powerhouse. Now it is just an motorless boat floating in the middle of the ocean. Oh, and there’s a hole in it, too.

Paterno believes that he still has what it takes, and, obviously, he would like to go out on a winning note, but at this point, it just does not seem possible. The team right now is 2-6, with wins over Central Florida and Akron.

Before last week’s road loss to a respectable Ohio State program, the Nittany Lions lost their homecoming game 6-4 to Iowa. That’s right, it was a two-run homer and a bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning that lost them the game. By the way, the Red Sox-Cardinals game that started shortly after the Penn State game had a final score of 11-9.

Penn State did not score once, offensively. The Hawkeyes even gave the Nittany Lions four points on two safeties, and they still didn’t take advantage of it. That’s like realizing you just had free HBO for the weekend the following Monday.

The fan support for this team is dropping, too — especially from students.

“I completely understand where they are coming from,” backup quarterback Michael Robinson said on Penn State’s athletics Web site. “How many 2-5 teams have 108,000 fans supporting them?”

The answer is none.

If Michigan were to go 5-16 in its last 21 games, and hold a 2-6 record going into November, you could bet your Notre Dame-NBC television contract that Lloyd Carr would not be coaching the Wolverines next season.

So why is Penn State sticking with its old ball coach?

The reason is that the school is holding onto the past — a past that is forgotten by 108,000 fans who attend Penn State games. Because when they look up at the scoreboard and see a final score of 6-4, fans quickly forget the past and think about a new future.

Just because Paterno has been head coach for 39 years and led Penn State to two national championships, five undefeated seasons and 20 top-10 rankings doesn’t mean he should be allowed to continue coaching after he’s lost his touch.

A resume gets a job; it doesn’t keep it.

There are plenty of candidates and plenty of potential coaches who have the ability to rebuild a dying football program. It just will take some guts by the athletics director to force him to resign or even Paterno himself to realize he is not what he used to be — a great football coach.

Jimmy Johnson is the assistant sports editor of The Pitt News, and he hopes that a new Penn State coach would renew the Pitt-Penn State rivalry, because Penn State needs to lose some more in-state battles. Contact him at jimmysjargon@yahoo.com.