Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1486024
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 5 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A SIGN OF THE TIMES Ten years ago, Bill O'Brien's dalliance with the NFL transported Penn State to a new and unfamiliar world of postseason coaching drama I t's that time of year again — college football's annual job fair is getting underway. In the coming days and weeks, underper- forming programs across the country will sort through their lists of head coaching candidates, make their hires, hold their introductory press conferences and write some astonishingly large checks in the hope of landing a guy who will keep them from hav- ing to do it all over again in three or four years. Penn State will be a spectator this year, James Franklin hav- ing signed a 10-year contract extension last November. That's typically where the Nittany Lions have found themselves when the calendar flips to December — looking on from afar as many of their Power Five counterparts scramble. From 1950 to 2011, the Lions had just two head coaches, and the transition from Rip Engle to Joe Paterno in 1966 could hardly have been more seamless. In contrast to the speed-dating style of modern football hires, Penn State's change in leadership happened nearly three months after the end of the 1965 football season. Engle had wanted his longtime assistant to get the job, and in addition to promoting from within, the university retained the rest of the coaching staff. As Paterno told reporters at his intro- duction as head coach, "There are five or six other coaches here that are just as qualified as I am." After Paterno established himself in the late 1960s as one of the game's best young coaches, there wasn't much uncertainty from year to year about who was going to be in charge of Penn State's program. Yes, he entertained offers from the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969 and the New England Patriots in 1973, but the flirtations were brief, and both times he returned to PSU, unable to pull himself away from the program he was building into a national power. A New World During the 46 years in which Paterno helmed Penn State's pro- gram, there were nearly 900 head coaching changes elsewhere in M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M Bill O'Brien went 15-9 in his two seasons as head coach of the Nittany Lions. He left for the Houston Texans in January 2014 and compiled a 52-44 record before being let go four games into the 2020 NFL season. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL