I’m not sure if this was already discussed in the “What are you reading?” thread (I did not wade through every page of that), but I finished Jay Paterno’s new novel this past weekend.
For those who are unaware this is a fictional account that follows an Ohio State head coach who is on the hot seat following a couple of “sub-standard” seasons and some recruiting misses. It focuses less on game action and more on off the field issues, ranging from recruiting to coaching rumors to player injuries to player personal lives interfering with school/team to locker room dynamics.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read. I think Jay is a good writer although I thought parts of the book suffered from perspective issues: it is primarily written from the first person (the coach) perspective, but occasionally seems to stray into omniscience for the narrator. Minor point.
Jay has said in interviews that while the book is fiction, the incidents in it are either fictionalized versions of things he was involved with, or had knowledge of. Some of these were pretty interesting to me. There are also some thinly veiled PSU references that folks might enjoy.
Some things I thought were interesting, especially if they are based in fact (not necessarily at PSU). I guess some of these could be considered spoilers:
“…you better stick to University policy” (regarding an alleged rape by a player)
“Are you sure? That didn’t work out so well for Joe Paterno. He followed school policy to the letter of the law and got fired for it.”
For those who are unaware this is a fictional account that follows an Ohio State head coach who is on the hot seat following a couple of “sub-standard” seasons and some recruiting misses. It focuses less on game action and more on off the field issues, ranging from recruiting to coaching rumors to player injuries to player personal lives interfering with school/team to locker room dynamics.
All in all, it was an enjoyable read. I think Jay is a good writer although I thought parts of the book suffered from perspective issues: it is primarily written from the first person (the coach) perspective, but occasionally seems to stray into omniscience for the narrator. Minor point.
Jay has said in interviews that while the book is fiction, the incidents in it are either fictionalized versions of things he was involved with, or had knowledge of. Some of these were pretty interesting to me. There are also some thinly veiled PSU references that folks might enjoy.
Some things I thought were interesting, especially if they are based in fact (not necessarily at PSU). I guess some of these could be considered spoilers:
- Coaches specifically scheduling off season workouts for Friday early AM to try to discourage players from going out Thursday night (which is a big party night) to keep them out of trouble.
- Encouraging players to have parties at a designated residence (player’s house) to keep them out of the bars.
- Allowing a Florida State booster to make a payment to a recruit’s church in order to steer the recruit to OSU so he wouldn’t go to Florida (the recruit had already ruled out FSU).
- Bad Big Ten officiating definitely comes up.
- A player who allows himself to be indicted on a misdemeanor assault charge even though he was innocent because the actual assailant was his friend from high school who had prior convictions. He told the coach this and accepted a suspension from the team to protect his friend.
- Scoring a late TD on a pass play during a blowout where the QB audibled to a pass play when the coach was trying to run out the clock (refers to the Rutgers game where McQueary scored late)
- References to assistant coaches sexting with undergrads/dating undergrads (possibly also a McQueary reference)
- A university employee who has it out for the football program and goes on a rampage against the team, including grossly exceeding her job description. The character’s initials are VT. No chance this isn’t Vicky Triponey.
“…you better stick to University policy” (regarding an alleged rape by a player)
“Are you sure? That didn’t work out so well for Joe Paterno. He followed school policy to the letter of the law and got fired for it.”
