ESPN's Dr. Jerry Punch hopes JoePa gets more gracious exit than Bowden

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Here at Pocono for another NASCAR weekend and I just had a nice, one-on-one sitdown interview with ESPN-ABC pit road reporter Dr. Jerry Punch.

I will feature him in the Sunday newspaper.

Punch is now almost exclusively on the auto racing scene. The NASCAR Sprint Cup season extends to nearly Thanksgiving, leaving him little time to jump over to any other sport.Punch_jerry

But for many years he was a fixture on the sidelines at many of the biggest games in college football. Remember, Punch knows the sport. He was a walk-on quarterback for Lou Holtz at N.C. State.

Punch, who will turn 58 later this month, developed a great rapport with Joe Paterno over the years and had good things to say about college football's iconic coaching figure.

"As long as I've been alive Penn State has been a powerhouse in football," Punch said. "When I was at NC State, we played Penn State twice. And I can tell you there was no more class individual coming to and from a locker room than Joe Paterno.

"Every time I've been around JoePa, and I'd go up there to State College to have lunch with him at the Nittany Lion Inn, he has been a class individual. He's still sharp. His body may not be as strong as it once was, and he may look a little worn and teethered, and why wouldn't it after all he's been through in his career? But standing on the sidelines and listening him talk to his coaches, you realize he's much more alert than some 60-year-old head coaches I know in terms of what's going on.

"I just hope and pray the Penn State people appreciate all that he has been a part of and all that he has given. They have to be careful with how his final years are handled. We saw it with Lavelle Edwards at BYU and Tom Osborne at Nebraska and at a few other places. When they're gone, they're going to be very, very sorely missed on the field and in the win-loss column."

Punch said one of the highlights of his career was standing on the field in the pregame of the 2006 Orange Bowl when Penn State met Florida State and having a conversation with Paterno an Bobby Bowden.

"I was standing there with these two guys, two of the all-time greats in college football," Punch said. "And they are two of the nicest people. They were just exchanging pleasantries. They weren't talking about the game. They were talking about life and how they were feeling. I saw something really special. Something happened in the locker room at halftime and one coach spoke up on behalf of the other and it was really cool because of the respect factor. We asked Bobby about the [all-time win] race and Bobby said to me, 'Are you kidding me, Joe's the man.' "

Punch said Florida State definitely could have handled Bowden's departure better.

"Jimbo Fisher is a friend of mine and I am glad he got the job, but they definitely could have handled it better," Punch said. "I hope Penn State learns a lesson from that."

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