NEW
HORIZONS
A heartbreaking loss
set the stage
for Penn State's
golden era by forcing
Joe Paterno to expand
his recruiting outlook
T
hroughout Joe Paterno's long tenure
as head football coach at Penn State,
there were a few enduring principles
that dictated the program's approach to
recruiting. One of the most important was
that the Nittany Lions needed to dominate
their home territory, which was generally
de.ned as the area within a 300-mile ra-
dius of University Park.
Dominating that area meant that Paterno
and his assistant coaches needed to recruit
successfully not only in Pennsylvania but
also in nearby states: Maryland, New Jersey,
New York, Ohio and to a lesser degree
Delaware, West Virginia and all of New
England.
During the .rst decade and a half of Pa-
terno's tenure, Penn State rarely ventured
outside of that area. It wasn't until the
early 1980s that the Lions began heading
to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Florida in search of nationally recog-
nized prep football prospects.
In those early years, no one had any le-
gitimate reason to criticize Penn State's
regional approach to recruiting. The results
R E C R U I T I N G H I S T O R Y
