Buckeyes return to the scene of the crime

COLUMBUS -- Ohio State lineman Shane Olivea is still upset about the Buckeyes being the pinata at a party for Penn State coach Joe Paterno two years ago.

That would explain why the senior offensive tackle is in no mood to throw a pity party this week for the football icon.

The Buckeyes blew a 27-9 second-half lead in Beaver Stadium on their last visit, providing everything but the balloons and streamers for Paterno's then-Division I-A record 324th victory.

Their return trip to not so Happy Valley on Saturday finds the Nittany Lions (2-6, 0-4 Big Ten) trying to stave off the worst record since Penn State began playing football in 1887 and hoping to avoid a fifth-straight loss -- something that has never happened in 38 years under their legendary coach.

"We're going up there to make it five in a row," Olivea said, speaking for the eighth-ranked Buckeyes (7-1, 3-1). "I don't feel sorry for them; we've got a job to do ourselves. We can't worry about his record or the games he's lost since he's been there. Our job is to give him five losses in a row."

Only then will Olivea be able to blot the 29-27 come-from-ahead loss of 2001 from memory.

"I remember two things -- one, the game slipping away, and two, the JoePa celebration," he said. "I remember a bunch of us looking at each other and thinking, `Man, I don't ever want to feel this again.' We just stood there and watched them celebrate."

The closest Olivea came to showing empathy for Paterno's current plight was when he traced Penn State's troubles to the departure of the four Lions who went in round one of the last NFL draft.

"When you lose as many guys as they did to the NFL, especially on defense, there's going to be a drop-off," Olivea said. "I didn't think it would be this severe."

Neither did the Penn State faithful, growing restless by the week. Unless the Lions suddenly apply the brakes, they are headed to their third losing season in four years. Their coach's advanced age (76) is a number dwarfed by their national rankings in scoring offense (102), passing offense (102), total offense (105), turnover margin (104), kickoff returns (116), passing efficiency (110), run defense (107) and net punting (110).

The Internet web site JoePaMustGo.com obviously doesn't want Paterno to fulfill his contract, which runs through 2004. Even some of his former players are trying to nudge a man who has won two national championships, piloted five perfect seasons and given more than $4 million back to the university toward retirement.

"He has brought Penn State to where it is and he deserves great credit for that," New York Jets guard Dave Szott told the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News. "But now the program is on its way down. And how many seasons, how many free rides, how many years do you give a guy?"

Paterno shows no signs of slowing down, even if his teams have.

"I haven't been around a 2-6 football team for 60 years, when I was a junior in high school," he said. "It's tough, but what are you going to do about it? I can go home and cry or I can come out fighting. I have never been a guy that wanted to back away from a fight."

That attitude doesn't surprise OSU coach Jim Tressel.

"Knowing coach Paterno as I know him, no one is being more difficult on him than he is," Tressel said. "He's a competitive guy. You wouldn't be coaching as long as he has if you didn't have a passion to compete. And he likes to win. He knew going into this season that he lost a lot of great seniors and he was going to have a battle from the get-go, and I've never seen Joe Paterno shy away from a battle. So I'm sure he's consumed with what he's doing."

Tressel, whose father Lee coached for more than three decades before his death in 1981, marvels at Paterno's longevity. Lee Tressel was born one year before Paterno, who turns 77 on Dec. 21.

"If my father were still alive, he might still be coaching," Tressel said. "Those coaches, we're hard to pry away from our passion and the things we love -- the interaction with the players and what is outside all those statistics and those kind of things."

Tressel doesn't agree with those who say the game has passed Paterno by.

"I know this, that what he was doing for many, many years on defense and continues to do, a lot of it is what we do," Tressel said. "If you look at the things we do with our front and our secondary and our zone blitz, that's what they do. From an offensive standpoint, the game (quarterback) Zack Mills had against us two years ago, that's no different than the (quarterback power plays) we ran against Miami with Craig (Krenzel) in the Fiesta Bowl, and everybody thought that was a great idea.

"We got that idea, I guess, from Penn State. So I wouldn't, I couldn't buy that one."

Originally published Friday, October 31, 2003