Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/703041
sisters worked with his mother for a time. So I got close with his family. I pray for Tim every morning." An evolving philosophy Vanderlinden's success with linebackers at Penn State helped continue the Nittany Lions' well-deserved reputation as "Line- backer U," which started in the early 1960s with the team's first linebackers coach, Dan Radakovich and continued with Jerry Sandusky. What may surprise younger Penn State fans is that Vanderlinden didn't concentrate solely on coaching linebackers until joining Joe Paterno's staff in 2001. Until then, the only other time he coached linebackers without other coaching duties was during the two years he spent as a graduate assistant at Michigan from 1979- 80. Actually, Vanderlinden's success as a linebackers coach can be traced directly back to his high school coach at Divine Child High in Dearborn, Mich., Bill McCartney. Vanderlinden was a linebacker and center in high school and then the starting center for four years at Albion College. By 1979, McCartney was the defensive co-coordinator for Bo Schembechler at Michigan and he helped Vanderlinden become a graduate assistant to work with the linebackers. In 1981, Vanderlinden was hired by Ball State to coach the offensive line, his first full- time coaching job. Two years later, Mc- Cartney was into his second year as head coach at Colorado and hired Vanderlinden to oversee the defensive line. That put Vanderlinden under the tutelage of Lou Tepper, Colorado's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, for a few years. When fellow Colorado assistant Gary Bar- nett became the head coach at North- western in 1992, he took Vanderlinden with him as the defensive coordinator, adding linebackers to his coaching as- signments. "I learned a lot about coaching line- backers from Lou Tepper and Bill Mc- Cartney," Vanderlinden said. "In my first two seasons as the linebacker coach at Northwestern, I learned and solidified my linebacker coaching philosophy, and that has continued to evolve with every year I have coached, including my last two here at the Air Force Academy." Vanderlinden didn't realize it at the time, but his move to Northwestern was a defin- ing moment for his future at Penn State. A year later, he helped recruit a lightly regarded kid from the Chicago suburb of Orland Park named Pat Fitzgerald. "Pat wasn't highly recruited," Vander- linden remembered. "It was us and Georgia Tech. We were the only two Division I schools to offer Pat. He was a great player and won the Bednarik Award two years in a row as the best defensive player in college P R E V I E W PRO TIP Vanderlinden coached Posluszny to back-to-back Bednarik Awards in 2005 and '06. The All-America linebacker has gone on to become a Pro Bowler with Jacksonville. Pho- tos by Parker Anderson (oppo- site page) and Steve Manuel