Working+Draft

__Inside the Brain__
 * Intro:** Joe Paterno has had much success with only 2 losing seasons as a head coach at Penn State. Joe Paterno is fair but strict with his team; no book work means any field play for Nittany Lions’ student-athletes. Joe repeatedly tells his team that he will start eleven freshmen if eleven seniors are not doing well in there classes. Outside the education, behavior outside of school and the football field also affects the players just as much if not greater. Joe Paterno takes pride in being a Lion and wants his players to do the same. He has never hesitated with suspending or removing a player and that’s the attitude his team reflects. When everything goes right and it’s down to him being a mastermind, there is no stopping him. **//Joe Paterno is so successful because of his unique strategies and intense preparation before and during season.//**

As stated earlier Joe Paterno is a field mastermind, his play calling and awareness as a coach is way above average. A major part of offense is being aware as a coach of who is on the field? What down it is? How many yards to first down? Etc. This is called “Game Awareness” this is an essential part of the game because everything a coach does is all determined by amount of game awareness he has. Joe Paterno played Tennessee in the National Championship in 1971. There were Interceptions and fumbles in the first half by the Penn State Nittany Lions that gave the Tennessee Volunteers a 21-0 lead by the end of the first half. During the first half of that game the passing and running ratio was about 70-30. Now JoePa being aware of what the game situation was, he decided to compliment his offensive attacks with one another more. He begin to play smash football by letting junior running back John Cappelletti carry the ball six times in a row to set up inches from the goal line. Then, allowed Senior Bob Nagle to lunge his body over the line for another Touchdown. The drive before was a compliment because it was pass driven where John Hufnagel launched a 79 yard pass to Jimmy Scott, for a touchdown, which softened the defense and opened the run. After attacking in multiple different ways, JoePa still lost but the final score was 21-28. His game awareness allowed him to shut out Tennessee in the third quarter, going into fourth, 14-21. Both team put up a last minute score which gave Tennessee the win. The second have attack ratio was 60-40, pass-run. Although it might not seem much of a difference 10% in attack ratio is a major difference. Offensively Joe Paterno is the coaches of all coaches, his philosophy is never steady enough for a coach to plan for, meaning JoePa could throw on first or run, or go for it on fourth or punt. His game awareness is above the charts, he watches substitutions of the other team, time, down, etc. Everything that he watches and analyzes determines his play calling and strategy. This is just one part of the game that has made JoePa such a successful coach.
 * Strategy: Offense:** Joe Paterno is a field mastermind, with matter of seconds he breaks down every aspect of the game before he calls the next play, this is one strategy that he has that many other coaches have not to develop yet, or maybe never will. “A great offense, in my experience, has to obey one principle above all others: Don’t lose the ball in a turnover. In considering the next offensive play, in most situations our first question is, what’s the chance of fumbling? What’s the chance they’ll intercept?” (Paterno 96) Along with his abilities to breakdown a team during the game, he spends twice as much time before a game. This is called “Game Planning”, where he will sit down, watch video on his next opponent and breakdown their offensive and defensive weaknesses, along with weaknesses in Joe’s own team, which the other team could exploit. After he isolates the “problem plays”, which are offensive plays or defensive sets from the other team that will be difficult to defend or difficult to break.