Joe Paterno is in his 55th year at Penn State, his 39th as head coach. He turns 78 in December. He is arguably the greatest College Coach of All Time, and he is close to retiring, but having struggled the past four years,he desperately wants to go out on an uptick, and he figures he is only  a couple of players away from being a good football team in 2005,...

Paterno is to College Football, that Vince Lombari was to Pro Football.

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...Paterno is probably the greatest college football coach ever. You could argue Bear Bryant or Pop Warner or Eddie Robinson or Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, although even Bowden says it's Paterno.

Paterno is in his 55th year at Penn State, his 39th as head coach. He turns 78 in December.

He has had only five losing seasons in 39 years, but four of those have been since 2000.Paterno has gone 24-32 since 2000.His team is 2-6 and 0-5 in Big Ten play.

We live in tabloid times, where the body of a man's work is measured by what he did yesterday and what he'd better do tomorrow...

And so the long, possibly torturous, goodbye begins.

The question, "How do you fire Joe Paterno?" comes with a simple answer:

You don't.

The rules of 2004 engagement do not apply to an icon who has poured heart, soul and millions of dollars into Penn State since joining the staff in 1950.

John Cappelletti, who won the 1973 Heisman Trophy as a Penn State running back, considered the audacity of Tuesday's inquiry.

"Do you deserve to be back after 55 years of building a program?" Cappelletti said. "It deserves a little bit more time and respect than that."

How much time, though, and how much respect?

The stubbornness that made Paterno a great coach might not serve him as well in dealing with his coaching mortality.

Yet, ultimately, the only man who can fire Paterno is Paterno.

Will he eventually make the call on himself?

"I think he has to come to that conclusion," Cappelletti said. "How do you even categorize this gets to be the question. You don't have any other reference point with Penn State because in modern times, there hasn't been a situation like this."

Cappelletti says this is one coaching job that should not be evaluated in the first week of November.

"At the end of this season, then you take a look at this, then at least people sit down and discuss it," Cappelletti said. "And if Joe decides he wants to do it for another year, that's probably the way it's going to be. If he decides it's in the best interest of the program to start looking and start maybe transitioning out, he will probably determine that too.

"You're looking at a tough deal, no matter what."

Paterno gives no indication that he's ready to walk away.

He recently signed a contract extension through 2008 and still says he's one solid recruiting haul from halcyon days.

"We're only a couple of players away from being a pretty good football team," he insisted this week...

The Nittany Lions' offense is anemic, but the defense is stout and young.

Paterno desperately wants to leave Penn State on the uptick, and might be looking to next year for his getaway plan....

"I know what has to be done, and I don't feel like we're out of it," Paterno said.

Anyone who thinks Paterno will go gently into the Nittany night is mistaken.

No Average Joe, but It's Time to Go
http://www.latimes.com/sports/
la-sp-dufresne4nov04,1,7963223.story