Milestone game for Paterno

SAN ANTONIO – Enough about milestones. Joe Paterno hasn’t counted his games and he’s not going to start now.

Penn State plays Texas A&M today in the Alamo Bowl, Paterno’s 500th game as the Nittany Lions’ head coach.

JoePa would just as soon not be reminded.

“I mean, Texas A&M and Penn State players are playing the game and I couldn’t care less if it was my 500th or my fifth,” said Paterno, who turned 81 last week. “To be very honest, I don’t think about it unless somebody brings it up.”

The Nittany Lions will play in their 34th bowl game under Paterno, almost one for every year Texas A&M interim coach Gary Darnell has been working in the profession.

The well-traveled Darnell has coached at 11 colleges across 37 seasons. He’s been A&M’s defensive coordinator since 2006 and was promoted to head coach for the bowl game when Dennis Franchione resigned on Nov. 23.

While Penn State has been college football’s model of stability, the A&M program is in flux. After the bowl game, Mike Sherman will take over the program and he’s expected to hire all new assistants – making the Alamo Bowl the last hurrah for the current staff.

Darnell thinks the game is more meaningful to A&M’s 19 seniors, who represent Franchione’s first recruiting class.

“For our coaches, it’s not their last game,” Darnell said. “The only people (for whom) it’s probably their last game is the seniors who are not going on to play professionally. For everybody else there’s another rainbow out there for them to go to and they’ll be there.”

The Aggies are still riding high after their 38-30 win over archrival Texas on Nov. 23, easily their best performance of the season. The offense, stagnant and predictable most of the year, was suddenly freewheeling against the Longhorns, with quarterback Stephen McGee completing 25 passes for 362 yards, both season highs.

Penn State last played on Nov. 17, blowing a 24-7 second-half lead in a 35-31 loss to Michigan State.

Penn State beat Texas A&M 24-0 in the 1999 Alamo Bowl and even with the losses, this year’s defense seems capable of pitching another shutout. The Nittany Lions rank eighth nationally in points allowed (17.6) and sixth against the run (88 yards per game).

Penn State has won 22 bowl games under Paterno, including four of the last five. The Aggies have lost nine of their last 11 bowl appearances, including the two they played under Franchione.