UPDATE- 1/28/11 at 11:30 AM: Jay Paterno has contacted Onward State with this statement:

I have had this account for family stuff. I don’t want family pics and family posts going all over the place.The other facebook page is for recruiting and public stuff. I have two pages.

Onward State has unlinked to Paterno’s private page and hopes that you respect his wishes for privacy.

Jay Paterno may very well be the most social media savvy member of the Penn State community outside of the student body. He writes for StateCollege.com and keeps up a pretty decent Twitter account. He’s even on The Facebook, as father JoePa might call. It just got a bit harder to find him on that last one though.

Sometime this week, JayPa changed his name to Al Smith.

Why would he do such a thing?

Too many groupies? As Penn State’s quarterback coach, he’s undoubtedly one of the area’s most eligible bachelor (as long as you overlook the fact that he’s happily married).

Is it so he can find a job when Dad retires? Perhaps he’s trying to shed his Paterno name so when the legendary patriarch leaves his head job, his prodigal son doesn’t as well.

No, I would like to humbly suggest that it may have been blowback over a racy a status he (as Jay Paterno) posted  before this past weekend’s Steelers-Jets AFC Championship Game. It read:

Inappropiate? Maybe. Worthy of having to change your entire identity? C’mon Jay.