Paterno Urges Keeping 9th Assistant to ‘Fight Off the Vultures’

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, at the final business session of the College Football Assn.’s annual meeting in Dallas, made an impassioned plea Sunday against an NCAA proposal that would cut full-time football coaching staffs from nine to eight assistants.

“We don’t have enough coaches as it is to fight off the vultures or the bums who try to exploit the kids,” Paterno said. “We need as much help as we can get.

“We are held accountable for our football players and now they are saying they want to take one of the people away from us who look after those players. Cost is not an issue here.”

The CFA went on record as opposing most of the cost-cutting measures which will be introduced at the NCAA convention in Dallas June 30-31.

In addition to the measure concerning staff size, other proposals include reducing the number of football scholarships and cutting back the number of days of spring practice.