Joe Paterno, the Penn State football coach who preached success with honor for half a century but whose legend was shattered by a child sex abuse scandal, said Wednesday he will retire at the end of this season.
Paterno said he was "absolutely devastated" by the case, in which his onetime heir apparent, Jerry Sandusky, has been charged with molesting eight boys in 15 years, including at the Penn State football complex.
He said he hoped the team could finish its season with "dignity and determination."
The school's board of trustees could still force Paterno to leave immediately. It also could take action against the university president, Graham Spanier.
Paterno said the trustees, who had been considering his fate, should "not spend a single minute discussing my status" and have more important matters to address.
The 84-year-old Paterno has been engulfed by outrage that he did not take more action after a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, came to him in 2002 and reported seeing Sandusky in the Penn State showers with a 10-year-old boy. Paterno notified the athletic director, Tim Curley, and a vice president, Gary Schultz.
Curley and Schultz have since been charged with failing to report the incident to authorities. Paterno hasn't been accused of legal wrongdoing. But he has been assailed, in what the state police commissioner called a lapse of "moral responsibility," for not doing more to stop Sandusky.
"This is a tragedy," Paterno said in a statement. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
Paterno met with his coaching staff and players in the football building at Penn State for about 10-15 minutes Wednesday in what was described as a very emotional session. Standing at a podium, Paterno told them he was leaving and broke down in tears.
Ex-Ohio State coach Earle Bruce, told of Paterno's departure, said, "This is a sad day."
JUST VISITING: Seen in the press box at the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl on Tuesday night was ex-Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. He declined to answer questions, saying he was just visiting in support of coach Tim Beckman, one of his former assistant coaches with the Buckeyes.
FAKING IT: A reporter asked P Ben Buchanan this week when he would fake a punt.
"I'd like to tell you that," Buchanan said with a laugh. "But if I told you, I'd have to kill you."
He added that the Buckeyes practice fakes. They just haven't called one — yet.
"We have them. It's just whether the situation calls for it," Buchanan said. "I always tell coach (Luke Fickell), 'Coach, I played baseball in high school. I can sling the ball around, I can run the ball around.'"
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Purdue coach Danny Hope, whose Boilermakers host the Buckeyes at noon Saturday, on Ohio State's defense:
"They are a very, very dominant defensive football team just like Penn State," he said. "The last five weeks counting this game this week, we will have played the No. 4-ranked defense, 18th ranked, 12th ranked, the top-ranked defense and this bunch here is exceptional. So they are really strong on defense and they hang their hat on the strong running game and can feature the quarterback some as runner. They are going to be a challenge no question about it. We have our hands full."