Last snippets from Big Ten Media Day before I hit the Stevenson, Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways

CHICAGO -- I think this will be Joe Paterno's last season as Penn State's head football coach.

I hope I'm wrong. He's still the one of the most-interesting coaches to listen to at the Big Ten media days.

By the way, guessing what I'm guessing about Paterno won't get me in anywhere near the hot water in Iowa as suggesting this might be Norm Parker's last year as the Hawkeyes' defensive coordinator. I understand that scuttlebutt set off firestorms among certain circles of Hawkeye fans on Monday.

As for Paterno, I have nothing concrete on which to base my hunch other than he looked and sounded a lot older than a year older from the last time I saw him. That, and whenever a coach even mentions the word "retirement" or "successor," he's got an exit strategy in mind.

Paterno was asked here if he was optimistic Penn State would seek his opinion when it came time to replace him. Last month Paterno said he hoped he would be asked for advice.

Had such a question been posed in the past, Paterno would have shooed it off like a Penn State ballcarrier shoos off a tackler from Temple. But now ...

"I would hope they'd sit down with me," Paterno said. "If I decide to get out of coaching, whenever that may be, I would hope that when they start looking at somebody to succeed me who may be the head coach, that they would -- if they did nothing but just throw something out to say, 'Hey, we're thinking about so-and-so,' and give me an opportunity to say 'Well, I think that's a good choice,' or 'Hey, you better take a look at this,' or 'I'm not so sure he's the best guy, have you thought about this guy?' "

By the way, 83-year-old Paterno was asked about intestinal issues he has dealt with this year.

"It was a little bit below the intestines," he  said.

Actually, Paterno took antibiotics because of a dental infection, and spent three months recovering from his reaction to the drugs.

It's tough enough being 83, let alone coaching a Big Ten football team.

What a strange feel the 2011 season would have in the Big Ten if it had Nebraska but didn't have Paterno.

But even with a 12th member, the Big Ten will remain the Big Ten.

"I think the Big Ten is the Big Ten regardless of the number," league commissioner Jim Delany said.

OK, fine. But try explaining to foreigners and young children why the Big Ten will have 12 members next year and the Big 12 will have 10.  It's one big steaming pile of deception, if you ask me.

Finally, a Penn State offensive lineman (sorry, I don't know which reportedly has a photo of Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn as his cell-phone background photo. For motivation. He does it to constantly be reminded of Clayborn, presumably to motivate him to negate Clayborn when the two teams meet in Iowa City on Oct. 2.

"I heard about that," Clayborn said.

"If that's what you've got to do to get better, then that's what you've got to do to get better. Some guys need get motivated in different ways."

Clayborn said he didn't understand how that works as motivation.

"Maybe if it was a hot girl as the background," he said, "but I don't want to see a 300-pound guy."