It was bound to be asked at some point during Joe Paterno’s weekly press conference. The question on everyone’s mind ended up being the first one asked.

JoePa announced his plans to return to the sidelines for a 46th season in 2011 on Tuesday, saying “I’m looking forward to it. We could be a pretty good football team next year, and I’d like to be part of it.”

Twitter was abuzz Monday night with speculation as to whether Joe would announce his retirement Tuesday or in February or when aliens invaded our planet and Mike McQueary was revealed as their leader here on Earth. All those rumors have now been resolved and JoePa can look to add to his 401 wins and counting in 2011.