Cup O' Joe

Gordie Jones of FOS has a recap of a recent press conference with the legend himself.

Paterno was asked about Bowman:

Paterno said, “Right now he doesn't have any problems, as long as he keeps up
his academics.” Paterno added that Bowman still has to complete his community service -- “and in all fairness to Navorro, there was some misunderstanding about who was going to supervise that part of it.” But as far as the team is concerned, he is in good standing.

Hopefully, Navarro will keep things together.

About Notre Dame being the 12th member of the Big Ten . . .

“I think they've had their chance,” he said.

Classic! Let's face it, ND brings viewership, but little else to the Big Ten. And as long as the Irish can negotiate their own TV contracts, they have no incentive to join any conference.

On incoming recruits . . .

“You know what I tell high school kids when they come in?” he said. “ 'Get ready to get knocked on your ass. This ain't high school. You come here, and you've got a lot to learn. If you think you're going to walk across the field and say I'm all-this, I'm all-that, it ain't going to work. You've got to get out there, you've got to take your bumps and your bruises and you've got to get after it.' Which ones are going to do it? How do I know? I've never been on the practice field with any one of those incoming kids. They've never heard me yell at them.”

He said "ass!" BOOGER! Then, he compares football to . . . chess:

“Chess, the king can do one thing, the pawn can do another thing, the whole bit. Football and coaching is (determining) who's the pawn? Who's the king? So you can put them all together. ... I don't have any reservations about playing a freshman. ... When I say to a kid, 'Hey, get ready to get knocked on your rear end,' I also tell him, 'Learn. Learn why you got knocked on your rear end, so when you come out to practice the next day, they're not going to knock you on your rear end the same way. And you've got a chance to knock him on his rear end.' There's no hard-and-fast rules. We've got a bunch of kids coming in, we're going to work our butts off to see how good they can be, and how much we can help them be good. We've got to put the combination together that gives us the best chess board.”

Will they go back to the checkerboard end zone? Does that mean he'll open the Akron game with a Ruy Lopez opening? I imagine Paterno is more fond of the Sicilian Defense, though.