By tonight, Joe Paterno predicts he'll be thinking like a fan.
"I'll go to bed Friday night thinking, 'Anthony [Morelli], are you ready, kid?'" Paterno said earlier this week. "Defense, are we going to be able to grab a couple of things? Because they're going to throw the ball against us. If they don't, I'll be surprised."
But by noon tomorrow at Beaver Stadium, when the No. 17 Nittany Lions open their 2007 campaign against Florida International, Paterno will likely feel like a coach again.
The 80-year-old will be on the sideline for the first time since November, when he was carted off Wisconsin's field following a sideline collision with tight end Andrew Quarless.
Paterno broke his left leg in the tumble and was absent from the sideline for the Lions' final three games while recovering from surgery.
Now, though, Paterno said he's ready to begin his 42nd year as Penn State's coach, which will break Amos Alonzo Stagg's record for coaching longevity at one school. Stagg coached 41 seasons at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932.
"I plan to be on the sidelines unless someone runs me over," Paterno said. "I'm moving well enough to where I don't have to worry about it."
Tomorrow, the Lions will try to win their 100th season opener, this time against FIU, a program beginning only its sixth season and one which went winless (0-12) last year.
The Golden Panthers are perhaps most remembered for their role in an infamous on-the-field, bench-clearing brawl during a game with Miami (Fla.) last season that resulted in the one-game suspensions of 31 players, 18 from FIU.
In the wake of that incident, FIU's coach Don Strock resigned and the university hired 37-year-old Mario Cristobal, who has installed new offensive and defensive systems and welcomed several new starters. Cristobal is the second youngest coach in Division I-A, next to Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald.
"We're looking forward to doing things the right way," Cristobal said this week.
But FIU is certainly a young team. It has yet to name a starting quarterback from a group of three possibilities, one sophomore and two freshmen. The Golden Panthers also have sophomores littered throughout the starting lineup, including its entire linebacker corps.
For Penn State, scouting has been a difficult task.
"I haven't got the slightest idea what they're going to do offensively or what they're going to do defensively," Paterno said.
So in response, the Lions have spent their time preparing for any offensive formation or defensive scheme. Their best bet has been watching film on Rutgers University, where Cristobal was an assistant from 2001 to 2003.
"We really don't know what they're going to be trying to do to us," said wideout Terrell Golden, a tri-captain along with quarterback Morelli and linebacker Dan Connor. "We have to prepare for everything."
That goes for the defensive players, too.
"When you face a team that you don't see all the time, you have to prepare for all possibilities and just go out there and play," Connor said. "It's not going to be one of those games that the coaches can win."
Even if one was coaching at his current school before the other was born.
