Tuesday news conferences for college football coaches are just what the name suggests — there for newspaper reporters. They use the Q&A session to ask the coach about information from either the previous game or the upcoming game, depending on what kind of story they’re working on. Often times you get the usual suspects which include the beat reporters who are familiar with the coach’s tendencies and habits and who know the routine. But you also get random reporters from the opponent’s city, and they’re often looking for a more local story angle. That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday in Joe Paterno’s news conference when he was asked by a local Deerfield, Illinois reporter about fullback Joe Suhey. Keep in mind that the Suhey’s are considered the first family of Penn State football, having family members from several generations play at the school. Joe Pa then gets off this classic quote:
You think the Illinois fans are going to be holding up tooth brushes on the sidelines? That’s what I would be doing. Classic Joe Pa. At least he’s still good for something.
