It's November 1973, Ringo Starr's "Photograph" is about to become the No. 1 song in America and Richard Nixon's resignation is nearing.

In State College, Joe Paterno's thinking about coaching for just four or five more years.

Really.

I stumbled upon this 1973 Paterno profile by William Johnson in the Sports Illustrated Vault, and it is definitely worth a read.

Here are some highlights, with plenty of "What if?" material:

-Joe Paterno, USC coach?

"In 1956, when Rip Engle was offered the head coaching job at USC, a vote was taken among his staff as to whether they would prefer moving to California or staying in State College. The vote was 7-1 for staying put--the lone vote for abandoning Happy Valley was Paterno's."

-Joe Paterno and Al Davis?

"He has turned down coaching jobs of broad variety and location, among them the Baltimore Colts, the Oakland Raiders, Yale University, Michigan, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers and, the most famous offer of them all, the head coaching position with the New England Patriots last January."

-Joe Paterno, governor?

" 'There's a similarity between good politics and good football--you can't do either one without a lot of early work, preparation. But I'm not going to get involved in politics for a while--if I ever do. I want to coach for another four or five years. Then maybe take a year or so off to study. Yeah, maybe I'll study political science. But, look, I'm not fooling myself about politics any more than I fooled myself about football.' "

Pretty amazing that Paterno's been giving the answer of "four or five years" since at least 15 years before I was even born. Where would the Penn State football team would be right now had Paterno quit coaching 30 years ago? And how far would he have gone had he went into politics?

Of course, President Obama does need an opponent in 2012... I wonder who Jay would vote for?

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-William & Mary is getting rid of its "Tribe" nickname, and everyone's having fun submitting suggestions. More than 400 submissions have been received, including "Asparagus." I think we have a winner.

-More problems in the career of Mitch Mustain. The former all-world prep quarterback and Arkansas transfer recently lost the battle with Aaron Corp and Matt Barkley to replace Mark Sanchez as USC's starting quarterback. Now, Mustain has questions surrounding his academic eligibility.

-The annual World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party Florida-Georgia Game isn't necessarily going to stay at the neutral (although much closer to Gainesville than Athens) site of Jacksonville. Florida wants to keep the game there, but Georgia isn't so sure at the moment.

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Link/Video of the Day:
A D-III classic from 2007:

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-Matt Brown