Pete Carroll compares Joe Paterno to grandpa

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USC Coach Pete Carroll has made his admiration for Joe Paterno crystal clear this week, but he ever so slightly put his foot in his mouth when speaking earlier today about the Penn State coach’s age.

‘He’s endured a lot physically, coming off the hip surgery and all that,’ Carroll said during a morning news conference. ‘As much as I like running around and being active at practice, I don’t know what it would be like. I can’t picture what it would be like to not be able to do all that stuff. Maybe I can adapt, but I’m pretty entrenched in the way I like to do it. It’s hard to imagine. Not many of our grandfathers looked like they could have done that.’

Paterno as grandpa? Actually, considering their ages, Carroll isn’t too far off.

The USC Coach is 57. Paterno is 82.

Carroll also took time to poke fun at himself.

Asked if he was looking forward to matching wits with Paterno, he replied, ‘I don’t know if I have enough wits on my end to match. We’re just going to play the game and hope it ends up the way we want it to. Hopefully not the way he wants it to.’

-- Mike Hiserman