The Lion in Autumn by Frank Fitzpatrick Page B

talented players.
    â€œWe had some really good young players. We had some sophomores—in those days, freshmen were not eligible—that were good players,” he recalled later. “And I said to myself, ‘You’d better find out [about them], Paterno.’ ”
    So he gave youngsters like Onkotz, linebacker Jim Kates, defensive tackle Steve Smear, and defensive back Neal Smith more repetitions that week, much to the annoyance of the junior and senior starters. His reasoning that week was as much practical as philosophical. He knew he’d need more depth Friday night in Miami, where theforecast for the game against a University of Miami team, ranked No. 1 in the preseason by Playboy , called for hot and muggy conditions.
    â€œBecause I was worried about the heat . . . we went to Pittsburgh and stayed at a hotel,” he said. “We worked out at the Moon Township High School, got on the plane . . . went to the hotel in Miami the day of the game. We stayed in the hotel, got on an air-conditioned bus, went out on the field, and nobody knew how hot it was.”
    As the game in the steamy Orange Bowl wore on, Paterno began inserting more and more sophomores. Midway through the second quarter, there were six of them on the Nittany Lions’ defense. And they played spectacularly, limiting Miami to just 69 yards rushing in a 17–8 triumph. It was a reprieve for Paterno and a major turning point for his program.
    â€œIf we lost that game, I probably would have told some people here that they needed to start looking around for a new coach,” he said. “I was thinking about law school.”
    Despite the victory, more difficulties with his team followed the Miami game. That night two Penn State players were having a beer in the airport bar—a violation of the coach’s guidelines—when Paterno spotted them. He booted one off the team and suspended the other. Later, Lenkaitis and quarterback Tom Sherman met with the coach and suggested he might have overreacted to their teammates’ indiscretion. They warned of a brewing players’ revolt unless he relented.
    Paterno stood his ground. Eventually, the players’ hard feelings eased as victories helped them gain a new respect for their coach. After a blocked punt cost Penn State a 17–15 loss to UCLA a week later, the Nittany Lions would go unbeaten the remainder of the season.
    â€œThere comes a time when you know that things have got to change,” Paterno would say of the Miami game and its aftermath, “that something has got to be done differently. And you’ve got to have the guts to do it or you’re just another guy.”
    The seven straight victories to conclude the 1967 season earned 8–2 Penn State a Gator Bowl matchup with Florida State. Paterno was revved up for his first postseason game as head coach. During the fiveweeks between the final regular-season game and the December 30 contest in Jacksonville, he made major changes in his offense and defense and pushed his players relentlessly.
    Glenn Killinger, a former Penn State all-American and himself a college coach, attended a Paterno practice that week.
    â€œI was real proud of myself and asked Killy what he thought,” said Paterno. “He said, ‘Joe, you’re working them too hard.’ He had watched fifteen minutes and he could see that. And he was right.”
    Penn State led 17–0 at the half but tired badly after intermission. But it was a controversial coaching decision, as much as his players’ weariness, that sparked the Seminoles’ comeback.
    Spurning a field goal, Paterno had his team go for it on a fourth- and-1 at his own 15-yard line early in the third quarter. The Lions’ failure to make that first down revived the Seminoles. They scored two touchdowns before the quarter ended and tied the game on a 26-yard field goal with fifteen seconds left.
    Curiously, given the