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Now, If Joe Pa Could Find A Decent Steak

By JOE HENDERSON

Published: Jan 2, 2007

TAMPA - Any day that starts with a pregame flyover by five Harrier jets and winds up with Joe Paterno auditioning for a spot on Leno has to be deemed a success.

And so it is that we, the gracious hosts, call the day a winner and bid Auld Lang Onion to the 21st Outback Bowl. We also are once again secure in the knowledge that Raymond James Stadium really can be the site of interesting football games.

After that Bucs season, you know, we weren't so certain.

Anyway, the Outback is not the most important bowl game in America, to be sure, but you'll look long and hard before finding one that's more fun. Well, fun for everyone except Tennessee, maybe, and for the 65,601 fans who had to sit in the rain through seven (SEVEN!) stoppages by the Big East officiating crew for replays.

The Vols spent most of the soggy morning and early afternoon on the first day of 2007 trying to tackle Penn State running back Tony Hunt. They didn't do very well, but maybe that's because Hunt wouldn't let them.

"He's a money football player," Paterno said, and indeed Hunt ran 31 times for 158 yards in his final game for the school from Happy Valley. For someone who was supposed to be underrated, people sure seemed to talk about him a lot.

"I told you guys when I came here that he was my biggest concern," Vols coach Phil Fulmer said. "I don't know how many yards he had, but they were tough yards. He fell forward and ran hard. I think he's a fine back and one of the more underrated backs I've seen as far as what we thought of him versus the accolades he has gotten."

Where's The Beef?

We'll talk more ball in a bit, but we have to do a Paterno drop-in here first.

The grand old coach from Penn State watched the game from the press box, having decided that his broken left leg couldn't handle the rigors of 3 1/2 hours on the sideline in the rain.

It didn't drown his sense of humor, though.

As he took his seat on the interview platform after the game, Paterno jokingly groused that it had been a pretty good week or so in Tampa, except "I couldn't get a good steak anywhere, but other than that ..."

The startled Outback executives standing nearby didn't know whether to laugh or cut off Paterno's mike at that point, but he kind of winked at them and later allowed that, OK, maybe he had one good steak while in town.

Not that he had much of a beef this week, anyway.

His team was more physical than Tennessee, made fewer mistakes, ran for exactly 100 more yards, and generally struck a blow for Big Ten football at a time when anything between that conference and the SEC is being closely scrutinized. Right, Florida?

"I didn't really think they were that physical of a team," Hunt said. "They really boasted and bragged about their speed, but I think we brought something to the table today and they couldn't handle it."

Hunt is a big kid - 6-foot-2, 230 pounds - and out of the same high school, T.C. Williams, that was immortalized in the movie "Remember The Titans." Experts say his first step is a tad slow, which may hurt his pro chances. Tennessee might disagree, by the way.

"You can't say enough about him," Penn State receiver Derrick Williams said. "He can run the ball, he's a horse, he can catch it and he can block. He's a big-time leader. Tony's the best running back I've ever been around."

Another Winner

And so the teams fly away, the crowds head home, and another week of fun and good spirits goes into the books. As usual it was memorable, if only for the Penn State kids in the end zone seats near the end of the game.

Jumping like thousands of bobbleheads in dark royal blue and white T-shirts, hair drenched by the drizzle that dripped from the sky, they shouted and chanted as the band played on through the final minutes of the Nittany Lions' win.

You don't get that kind of exuberance in too many other settings, but it's just another reason why this is always one of the best days on the Tampa sports calendar. It reminds us that everything doesn't always have to be deadly serious, that even big-time sports still has the capacity for fun.

Now if someone can just find a nice rib eye for Joe Pa …

Maybe next year.