"That was 1987," said Al Golden, who couldn't have imagined then that, two decades later, he would be preparing to coach the Temple Owls against Paterno at a place in Philadelphia called Lincoln Financial Field.

Two decades after telling Golden and Sam Gash and the rest of the PSU Class of '91 that they would see him through to retirement, Paterno won't even entertain questions about the R-word.

"I'll figure that out in the year 2020," Paterno said yesterday in his weekly conference call/grouchfest with reporters. "There will be a couple of openings in the NFL for me. . . . People keep saying to me, 'When are you going to retire?' For heaven's sake, I feel good."

Saturday's game at the Linc will mark the first time Paterno has coached in Philadelphia since 1994. Whether it's the last time is up to The Big Coach in the Sky, since JoePa shows no signs of letting up. The only reason he hasn't beaten Temple 24 consecutive times is that he has only coached against the Owls 23 times.

For Temple, the matchup is a quixotic exercise, a wistful what-if that will mean so much more if it can be realized while Paterno is still on the sideline.

"If there's an opportunity for us to win one of these games, somewhere along the line, it's going to mean a lot to a lot of people," Golden said at his weekly media luncheon. "If it ever happens, it's going to go a long way. And that's a risk that [Paterno and Penn State] take."

One thing is for certain. Paterno's long shadow has always reached North Philadelphia. Golden is not the first coach with a Penn State pedigree to try to beat the odds and establish a winning football program at Temple. Former Paterno assistant Ron Dickerson was Temple's coach for five difficult seasons in the 1990s.

"I told him not to take the job," Paterno said. "They promised him a lot of things, including Bill Cosby, and I said, 'Ron, black coaches have got to get good jobs. They can't turn bad jobs around all the time.' I didn't want Ron to take that job, but he took it. He gave it a good shot, and he didn't get quite the support he had to get."

Paterno's point - that minority coaches are less likely to get a second chance - was interesting if rather bluntly made. But Paterno also advised Golden against taking the Temple job last year.

"You hate to have anybody move into a dead end," Paterno said, "because if you don't succeed, you get labeled. But Al felt he could get it done there, and obviously he is getting it done there. I think the fact that Temple went into the MAC has been a big credit to them, a big asset to them. I think if anybody can do it, they [Golden and assistant Mark D'Onofrio] ought to be able to do it."

One of Golden's strengths is that he's a realist. He doesn't expect Temple to compete with Penn State for the blue-chip recruits or to find its way into the Big Ten anytime soon. But Golden sees Boston College and Virginia Tech and Rutgers targeting good players and building solid programs and believes the same can happen on North Broad Street.

"Frank Beamer spent 10 years taking kids nobody wanted and built a national program" at Virginia Tech, Golden said. "BC has been in, like, 10 straight bowl games and still isn't recruiting at the same level as Penn State. They're recruiting at a different level, but BC beat them on the field two years in a row."

Golden took the Temple job because the "dead end" Paterno saw looked like an opportunity in the quickly changing world of college football. Temple's commitment to football has been reinforced after the disastrous stint in the Big East Conference. Golden has more than Dickerson's promised help from Bill Cosby.

The program seemed as if it was on the right track with three consecutive wins earlier this season. In its first season as a full member of the MAC, Temple has acquitted itself honorably with a young team. The future looks better than it has in some time.

Still, Golden knows as well as anyone that a win over Penn State would do more in three hours than three years of wins in the MAC. That's the magnitude of Paterno's body of work.

"At the rate I'm going, I'd have to live to be 315 years old to catch him," Golden said.

Of course, by then, Paterno will be 357 and taking calls from the NFL.

Phil Sheridan |

Penn State at Temple

Inside

Al Golden, a PSU alum, eager to face his old team. D2.