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Funny what a difference a year makes. Funny how last season everyone from Sports Writers to Talk Radio Prognosticators to Fans were calling for Joe Paterno to retire. They looked at the record, the age, the recent demise of a storied program and wanted him out. With trepidation, they cringed as he ran out onto the sideline to start this season.

Four months later, he's a Penn State hero again, a National Legend again and he and Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden are getting major props for sending their schools to the Metamucil Orange Bowl.

Funny how everyone forgets what they when they feel like they were wrong.

But I haven't forgotten that I was one of the many who said that both Paterno and Bowden should retire-or be forced to leave. I could give you a Google stack a mile long of articles, blogs and commentary discussing that not only should Paterno leave, but who the possible successors were.

Here's the thing: I still think Paterno and Bowden should leave.

That's right; I think that the "10-1-Almost Made the Rose Bowl-Resurgent Joe Pa-Led Lions" should ask Joe Paterno to retire. And if he says no, make him go.

I feel the same way about Bobby Bowden.
It's just time. Everyone looks back on coaches like Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes after they're done and knows they stayed too long. Only twenty years later do we start waxing nostalgic on their resumes.

Every so often we're reminded by video tape that Bear's exit wasn't so good, Hayes hit a player and left in disgrace.

Look, I love nostalgia. I love my copy of the '85 Bears Super Bowl Shuffle. Couldn't live without my tape of the 1997 Arizona Wildcats "Cool Cats". Reminisce about the days when Bobby Knight wasn't going completely insane at Indiana and only had a mild version of the disease.

But as you learn in life, you've got to move on. The same things happen in Sports.

As I've said before, if your favorite teams won their respective championships every year and your favorite player was always the MVP, you'd become numb to it, it wouldn't mean as much and you'd basically be the equivalent of a Sports Robot.

We need the shake-ups, the down years, the college graduations, the pro stars retiring in order to experience something new and help us appreciate the good times. It goes for coaches, too.

Bowden and Paterno are the two greatest College Football coaches of All-Time, no doubt. But if you can't see they've lost something, then you're either not paying attention or a fan of the schools.

In interviews, Bowden forgets pieces of information. Earlier this year, I documented how "out-there" Bowden sounded after the Miami win. I'm talking him not knowing how many field goals were made or missed, the score, things happening right in front of him on the field. Maybe he was just excited the Seminoles beat arch-rival Miami.

Or maybe he's slipping. It's not a huge secret he doesn't control the team as much as he used to as far as play calling and practices. And he certainly doesn't control his players.

I understand that lots of colleges have discipline problems, academic problems and legal issues concerning their athletes.  And those schools make changes, get sanctioned and fire coaches. That being said, I also understand Bowden's virtually untouchable at FSU-he's apparently earned that right to not be judged because he's won 2 National Titles (and lost many others).

But if Bowden cares about his school and his players as much as he says he does, he'd think about hanging it up. He can't relate to his players anymore-and it doesn't necessarily have to do with age. It's about being able to convey to a young athlete that stealing shoes or jewelry or beating up someone on campus isn't the best thing for their life.

He may not be able to stop every athlete from making mistakes, but making a guy who's a finely tune athlete run wind sprints at 6 am up and down the bleachers for getting arrested in the off-season isn't the same as suspending him or kicking him off the team.

You can do it: throw in the towel, Joe...dddrrroooppp iiiiittt.....

Paterno may not have those kinds of problems at Penn State. He's been virtually scandal free. Paterno's problem is he can't win football games-a fact nearly everyone agreed on before this season. Yes, Paterno's had a great year-a fact no one can deny or take away. But was this really the resurgence of PSU football or a blip on the radar screen that keeps Paterno coaching another five years? No one's talking about what will happen if Penn State goes 5-7 next year and misses a bowl.

Just like in real life, where college graduates have to go out and get jobs, get married, start families, stop sleeping until noon and playing video games all day, coaches and athletes must understand when it's time to pack up their boxes of memories and walk out the door. It's, to steal a phrase from Elton John and Disney, "The Circle of Life".

So, Coach Bowden, Coach Paterno: here's the door. We'll shut off the light and lock up for you once you're gone.