Penn State was the first Boise State, the original TCU. Its schedule was impugned for years as an independent. And rightfully so.
From the time Joe Paterno took over the Nittany Lions to Penn State's entry into the Big Ten, they were the Boise State or Texas Christian of their day -- outsiders trying to crash the big boys' party in college football. Paterno's level of success as an independent -- and how it changed once he had to deal with a major-conference schedule -- is a cautionary tale for boosters of the Broncos or Horned Frogs' BCS chances this season, says Bill Livingston.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Penn State was the first Boise State, the original TCU.
Joe Paterno, now the face of the college football establishment with his 400 victories, used to be the coach of a good team that, critics contended, really didn't play anybody. The Nittany Lions would lay a scoreboard rebuttal on scoffers in their bowl game. Paterno, in fact, has won a record 24 bowl games.
Penn State then was like Boise and TCU now. The Broncos and Horned Frogs can beat absolutely anybody in one game. The problem is, the bowl game and an early-season intersectional game against a good, not great, opponent is the extent of their tests.
From 1966, when Paterno, now 83, became the head coach, until 1992, the Nittany Lions were an independent. In that time, they won two national championships, had four unbeaten, untied teams and five times lost only a single game.
They joined the Big Ten in 1993. Since then, they have had no national titles, one undefeated team, and a single one-loss team. They have won one Big Ten title outright and have shared two with Ohio State.
Because it is fashionable to knock the Big Ten, this is considered a serious blot on Paterno's record. But it is the strength of a league Penn State was at first expected to dominate that explains the Nittany Lions' downturn.
The dropoff also shows what would happen if Boise State or TCU played in the big boy conferences. Boise and TCU would be good, but not as good. The meat-grinder schedule would create roster attrition. The Statue of Liberty and hook-and-lateral plays that helped Boise win its epic Fiesta Bowl game over Oklahoma in 2007 would lose their element of surprise. It would be a much tougher road to the BCS Championship Game than merely tumbling the dominoes in their current conferences.
The Nittany Lions from 1966-92 regularly faced the six other Eastern schools -- Boston College, Pitt, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia -- who were independents until the rise of the Big East and the subsequent conference realignments.
That Boise State or Texas Christian do well in bowl games against BCS conference opponents is not a surprise, says Bill Livingston. But that isn't the same as dealing with that level of competition every week.Syracuse played in a crumbling wreck called Archbold Stadium, where coach Ben Schwartzwalder couldn't suit up Jim Brown anymore. Pitt was terrible until Johnny Majors arrived in the early 1970s. Temple was a punching bag for Hofstra, as comedian Bill Cosby, a former Owl player, hilariously recalled in a routine. Sam Huff had exhausted his eligibility at WVU. Rutgers was where David Stern and Jim Valvano went to school. BC would have won the Beanpot Classic -- if there had been one in football.
In Paterno's 27 years as coach of an independent, he was 112-14-1 against the Sad Six.
The Nittany Lions also played the service academies. By the 1970s, the Vietnam war and homefront opposition to it had devastated recruiting at Army and had hurt it at Navy and Air Force.
In those 27 years. Penn State was 18-2 against the academies.
The Nittany Lions also often played Maryland and North Carolina State in their regional schedules of the time. Maryland was only four hours away by car, and N.C. State could be reached by a short flight. Maryland won six conference championships and N.C. State won two in those 27 years, but the ACC was a basketball-first league then.
In those 27 years, Penn State was 12-2 against N.C. State and 22-0-1 against Maryland.
Against the two ACC schools, the three service academies, and the six traditional Eastern independents the Nittany Lions were a combined 164-18-2 (89.7 percent, counting ties as a half-win, half loss).
Against everyone else: 83-39-1 (67.9 percent). Clearly, a great measure of Paterno's record, not to mention much of his mystique, came against the creampuffs and eclairs of the effete East.
Boise State and TCU got little respect until the BCS instituted reforms in its ranking system in recent years. Just so, the Penn State program suffered as an independent. The Nittany Lions were 12-0 in 1973, John Cappelletti's Heisman Trophy year, and were ranked fifth in both polls.
Boise State and TCU stand at the threshold of the national championship game now. That is probably good for the game. A Big Ten observer, however, would like to see them play their way into it by winning out in a league in which Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan State (with Nebraska waiting in the wings) present serious obstacles.
It's harder than it looks. Ask Paterno.