Don't let the façade fool you. Your eyes might see an old man.
The wrinkled skin, Coke-bottle glasses and cautious walk may scream, "over the hill." But behind that cloak lies the mind of a genius.
A mind that's witnessed, digested and dissected just about every route, blitz and scheme football has developed. A mind that is still the top in the conference and maybe even the country.
And you want to think that mind has lost its edge?
Sure, he may have a little trouble getting some names right. But when you consider Joe Paterno has met tens of thousands of people, players and coaches during his illustrious career, there are only so many names a mind can remember.
You don't think he knows that heck of a defensive end for Michigan is Brandon Graham, or that great athlete for Ohio State isn't Terrelle Pryor?
Please, he's watched these guys on film so much he probably still rolls around in his sleep at night just waiting for that next thought of genius to pop into his mind and draw up a blitz scheme or combination route on his bedside notepad.
Who needs names anyway?
He has shown more than anyone else in the history of college football that no one player is greater than the sum of his teammates. He's taken teams full of five-star, all-everythings and turned them into selfless champions.
Perhaps even more impressive, he's taken a bunch of Pennsylvania farm boys, coal miners and steelworkers and created a national power in the middle of cow pastures. And just when you thought he'd lost his edge and could no longer connect with high school kids, here he comes again with another impressive class. Can't recruit?
Bah, don't look now but Penn State could wind up with the top recruiting class in the country. But the players you get on paper mean little unless you can turn them into players on the grass.
Often ridiculed for being stuck in his ancient ways, who would have ever guessed his offense would be at the top of the Big Ten and his quarterbacks would sit in a shotgun?
The man has proven he adapts with the times.
He's not stubborn enough to plug a talent like Pryor into a ho-hum conservative offense.
Meanwhile, 300 miles to the west, the once heralded greatest football talent of all time is floundering in a system where he's more apt to hand off in his own backfield and spread terror through the defensive backfield.
He wanted to continue consistently winning bowls, something that guy in Columbus has struggled with, so evolve Paterno did.
But the funny thing is, he hasn't really evolved at all.
You may not believe him when he says it, but the current fad in football offenses was all the rage at the turn of the century -- the 20th century. (Ever hear of Jim Thorpe, the original wildcat?)
So no matter what you throw at him, Paterno has seen it and most likely beat it.
And when you think the game has passed him by, just look back down on the field and look at No. 2 in red.
Think he'd be reigned in on the other sideline?
Not that Paterno wants him. He's got his man who he knew all along would become a star and dependable leader.
And his mind is churning each night trying to figure out how he's going to do it all again.
Because in the end isn't that a coach's best asset?
They didn't keep track of football coaches' 40-yard dash times or how much they can bench press.
All that matters is the sharpness of his mind and ability to read and react. And when you've seen it all before, it's pretty easy to read.
Almost as easy as it'll be to realize the best coach on that field today may not quite look the part.
But as he's preached before, looks are pure window dressing.
It's what's going on behind those glasses and wrinkled face that matter.
And when it comes to football, even after more than half a century, there is still no sharper mind than that of one Joseph Vincent Paterno.
