It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was downright ugly. But on October 29, 2011, Penn State delivered victory #409 to their 84-year-old leader Joe Paterno, making him the coach with the most wins in NCAA Division I football history.

Ranked #19 prior to kickoff and playing at home, 7-1 PSU was heavily favored over unranked Big Ten rival Illinois, who were 6-2 coming into Happy Valley. But by all accounts, it was a miserable game for both teams till the last few minutes.

On Saturday, one of the worst blizzards in history came upon the Northeast. Beaver Stadium was draped in heavy wet snow. Pre-game, the grounds crew did their best to clear the turf, but the white stuff kept falling and left the surface slushy and slick.

Penn State fumbled the ball six times, losing two of them plus an interception to the Fighting Illini, who led 7-0 going into the fourth quarter. With seven minutes left, Anthony Fera’s 30-yard field goal put the Nittany Lions within four. Then, with just 1:08 to go, sophomore RB Silas Redd lugged the slippery pigskin three yards to the endzone for a 10-7 lead.

But the game wasn’t quite over. On the next possession, Illinois started in its own 17 and drove all the way down to the Penn State 25. That gave kicker Derek Dimke an opportunity to tie it with a 42-yarder, but as time expired his attempt bounced off the right upright, giving Paterno the historic win.

Just how awesome is his record? Florida State’s Bobby Bowden won 377 times prior to retirement, while Alabama’s Bear Bryant got only 323 wins. Woody Hayes never even reached 250 at Denison, Miami and Ohio State combined. The man JoePa left in second at 408 victories was Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, whose feat was once thought to be unbeatable.

En route to this amazing accomplishment, the Brooklyn native, who played both quarterback and cornerback for Brown University in 1946-49 before serving 15 years as a PSU assistant coach, guided Penn State through 46 seasons. He got his team to two national championships and five undefeated, untied seasons—more than any coach in NCAA football history.

Paterno well deserves the accolades he has received, as well as the short rest that next week’s bye will afford him. Win #410 is not going to come easily.  The Nittany Lions face #10 Nebraska next, followed by Ohio State and then #20 Wisconsin to close their 2011 regular season.

Should Penn State win the Leaders Division, as expected, they will face the best team in the Legends Division for the first ever Big Ten Conference Championship game. That will take place in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 3, 2011.

Many say that could be the maestro’s last concert. It would certainly be a fitting way to end a glorious career if it ended in one more triumph—a final feather to add to JoePa’s war bonnet and one more victory beyond what any other coach in Division I has ever accomplished.

Hats off to JoePa!

What on Earth has happened to college football in Florida? By Week 9 of the 2011 NCAA season, the once mighty gridiron state had not a single team left in the top 25.

Florida State, a pre-season #6 pick in the AP poll, was wallowing in the muck of a 4-3 start, which included a 2-2 ACC record. No one could blame the Seminoles for a 23-13 loss to #1 Oklahoma in Week 3. A 5-point loss to #21 Clemson in Week 4 could be forgiven, too. But to allow the lowly Demon Deacons of Wake Forest to walk away with a 35-30 win? Good-bye top 25.

Previously ranked Florida and South Florida have fallen, too. They both started 4-0, reaching high points in the AP Poll of #12 and #16, respectively, before sliding into the swamp of oblivion. The Gators dropped three in a row to ranked teams to stand at 2-3 in the SEC, while the Bulls bowed to three unranked conference opponents for a 0-3 Big East start.

And how about the U? Ever since the Hurricanes fell to Maryland 32-24 in their opener, they’ve never been a consideration. Like the Seminoles, Miami started just 4-3 overall and a miserable 2-2 in ACC play. Convincing wins over #17 Ohio State (24-6 in Week 3) and #22 Georgia Tech (24-7 in Week do not make up for losses to unranked Kansas State and Virginia Tech.

Also, don’t look to the smaller Florida football programs for salvation this season. The University of Central Florida had turned its 2-0 start into a 3-4 record by Week 8, ranking the Knights fourth out of six teams in Conference USA. Over in the Sun Belt Conference, Florida International jumped off to a 3-0 record before turning it into 4-3, including a pair of conference failures versus just one success.

By comparison, the Owls of Florida Atlantic make the rest of the state look pretty good. They got off to a rough start by losing their first two games to ranked opponents—#22 Florida by a score of 41-3 and #17 Michigan State 44-0. That set them on track for seven straight defeats, including another shutout at the hands of Western Kentucky in Week 7.

Taken as a group, the seven Florida schools have accumulated just 23 victories versus 27 defeats. Opportunities for redemption are becoming fewer, too, as none of the schools will be facing a current Top 10 opponent throughout the rest of the regular season.

Perhaps the most Floridians can hope for now are a few good bowl match-ups—assuming, of course, that a couple of Sunshine State teams can figure out how to win six games this season and become bowl eligible.

By late October, most college football teams have completed half of their regular season games, and the newly minted BCS standings show which ones are fulfilling the promise of greatness and who has fizzled or flopped.

Topping the preseason polls was Oklahoma, and the Sooners looked as good as their press in trouncing #5 Florida State 23-13 in Week 3 and #11 Texas 55-17 in Week 6. But when unranked Texas Tech upended the favorites in Week 8, ending a 39-game home winning streak by a score of 41-38, the dream of an undefeated season came to an end.

Now Oklahoma is hanging on to #9 in the BCS listing and still has to face three nationally ranked conference opponents: Kansas State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. They will need to beat every single one of them if they want to repeat as the Big 12 Champions, let alone have a shot at a BCS bowl game.

As predicted, neither of 2010’s two undefeated teams has been able to retain last year’s momentum, but onbody could have known how far they would fall. Former BCS Champ Auburn is struggling with a 5-3 start, which includes a 3-2 SEC record. Last season’s #2, T.C.U., is faring slightly better with a 5-2 start and 3-0 in Mountain West Conference play. However, neither team is listed among the mid-season top 25 on either the AP or USA Today polls.

So who has been picking up the slack? As predicted, current #2 Alabama is riding along without a loss, 8-0 overall and 5-0 in SEC action. But there is a problem in Week 9—a potentially huge problem—and it is spelled L.S.U.

The #1 Tigers’ record is identical to that of the Crimson Tide, and the coming match-up is being advertised as “the biggest regular-season game in Southeastern Conference history.” The winner will be the only remaining undefeated SEC team, certain to be ranked #1 across the country and favored to win it all on January 9^th, 2012 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Of course, there are several other undefeated teams who could have a say in that matter. Stanford and Boise State are both looking strong at 7-0. That goes for Oklahoma State and Kansas State, too, who meet each other in Week 10.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season so far has been Clemson. Currently 8-0, the #5 Tigers weren’t even listed pre-season, but they made believers of the pollsters after taking out three ranked teams in a row in Weeks 3-5.

Another upstart is Houston, riding a 7-0 record and now ranked #17 after going completely unnoticed till Week 7. The Cougars face no ranked teams the rest of the season, and with the most passing yards and points per game of all FBS teams at this point, they could very well run the rack according to handicappers at major sportsbooks.