Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544665
M A Y 2 0 2 6 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M USC (+290). If you want to look unrea- sonably far ahead, Penn State was tied with Clemson and Tennessee for 16th nationally with +5000 odds of winning the national championship. Having to worry about potential play- off matchups would be a good problem to have. For now, the Nittany Lions' fo- cus is mostly internal. They've laid the groundwork for a successful season, but even talking about Marshall, this year's opening-day opponent, feels premature. With summer approaching, the coaches are busy assessing what went right and wrong in spring practice and plotting a course forward. Campbell and his staff were planning to meet individu- ally with every player on the roster in the weeks that followed the conclusion of the team's offseason drills. "I think the key is everybody being aligned," Campbell said. "Where is the growth? What do you have to do? Then our coaches will go recruiting. When we come back at the end of May and through all of June, we'll put in a lot of time and effort schematically to see where our growth has to go. What do we have to be prepared for in July and August and really try to pound forward as we get ready for the early part of the season?" As far as Becht is concerned, a key part of that growth process has already taken place. The Nittany Lions, he said, have become more than just the sum of their disparate parts this spring. "I think we're one team now. We're Penn State," he said. "We're brothers, we're family. I'm excited for the sea- son coming around, and we'll be able to showcase our talent." ■ Don't jump to any conclusions about Matt Campbell's long-term outlook at Penn State based on whatever the Nittany Lions do this coming fall. If the program's history proves anything, it's that first-year results don't necessarily foreshadow how a coach's career in State College is going to go. Cases in point: Joe Paterno, Rip Engle, James Franklin, Bob Higgins and Hugo Bezdek. Those are the five win- ningest head coaches in program his- tory, yet Engle and Franklin were the only ones to post winning records in their debut seasons, with the former going 5-3-1 in 1950 and the latter 7-6 in 2014. Paterno fielded a middling team his first year before turning the Nittany Lions around midway through his second season, while Higgins and Bezdek couldn't break .500 at the outset of their PSU careers. Bezdek, who would go on to compile a 65-30-11 record in 12 seasons at Penn State, owns the worst first-year winning percentage in program history at .375. The coach at the top of Penn State's first-year leaderboard is Bill Hollenback, who went 5-0-2 in 1909. A Blue Bell, Pa., native and Penn graduate, Hollenback headed to Missouri after just one season in State College. He went 4-2-2 at Mizzou but returned to Penn State the following year and coached the Lions from 1911-14. In his five seasons with the team, he went 28-9-4. — Matt Herb Joe Paterno went 5-5 in his first season as a head coach after taking over for Rip Engle in 1966. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS At PSU, First-Year Results Can Be Deceptive FIRST-YEAR PSU COACHING RECORDS Coach Year Record Pct. Bill Hollenback 1909 5-0-2 .857 George Hoskins 1892 5-1-0 .833 Dick Harlow 1915 7-2-0 .778 Jack Hollenback 1910 5-2-1 .688 Bill O'Brien 2012 8-4 .667 Dan Reed 1903 5-3-0 .625 Rip Engle 1950 5-3-1 .611 Tom Fennell 1904 6-4-0 .600 Joe Bedenk 1949 5-4-0 .556 James Franklin 2014 7-6 .538 Joe Paterno 1966 5-5-0 .500 Bob Higgins 1930 3-4-2 .444 Samuel Newton 1896 3-4-0 .429 Sam Boyle 1899 4-6-1 .409 Pop Golden 1900 4-6-1 .409 Hugo Bezdek 1918 1-2-1 .375