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When he was head coach at Fordham, Joe Moorhead told the school's athletic administration that it would take a "pretty special opportunity" for him to leave his alma mater. He turned down at least one Football Bowl Subdivision head coaching overture while with the Rams, but last December, he finally received an offer that was too enticing to pass up. Penn State approached him about be- coming its offensive coordinator, and the Pennsylvania native accepted, taking charge of the offense after the team wrapped up its season in the TaxSlayer Bowl. Since accepting James Franklin's invi- tation to join his staff a little over a year ago, Moorhead has transformed the Nit- tany Lions from one of the Big Ten's most sluggish offensive teams into one of its most potent. Penn State averaged 37.6 points per game in 2016, a two- touchdown improvement over its aver- age the previous season. A lot of other programs took note of the Lions' turnaround, and some oppor- tunities followed. Moorhead reportedly received overtures from at least four schools about filling their head coaching vacancies, but none were able to lure him away from Penn State. While in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, Moorhead said he will continue to oversee the Nit- tany Lions' offense in 2017. "It's a testament and a compliment to our program and our players that you perform well during the season and other people have interest in talking to you," he said. "There were people who were interested in speaking to me about their head coaching positions, and I was willing to listen. Ultimately, I made the decision that personally and profession- ally, my family and I wanted to be at Penn State. So it was a little bit hectic at times, but it comes with the territory." The schools that were reported inter- ested in Moorhead were Temple, Purdue, Connecticut and Minnesota. The Connecticut job opened up after Bob Diaco was fired on the heels of a 3-9 season. Moorhead had been the Huskies' quarterbacks coach and offensive coor- dinator from 2009 to 2011, a three-year span during which they reached the Fi- esta Bowl. But he wasn't interested in returning to Storrs, nor did he end up re- placing Matt Rhule with the Owls or Tracy Claeys with the Gophers. He was said to be on the Boilermakers' short list, too, but they hired former Western Ken- tucky coach Jeff Brohm. Moorhead said he uses a range of cri- teria to determine whether an opportu- nity is worthy of serious consideration. A Pittsburgh native, he said that Penn State's proximity to his family is one factor that makes his current job ap- pealing. "I'm two hours from my folks," he said. "My wife's a couple hours from her fam- ily. My kids love it here in State College. And we're a program on the rise. James is great to work for. We have great kids. It just made the most personal and pro- fessional sense to stay here, because great things are on the horizon." Indeed, with nine offensive starters expected back next fall, including quar- terback Trace McSorley and running back Saquon Barkley, there's plenty of reason to believe that Moorhead's star will continue to rise. The Lions im- proved their offensive output by 84 yards per game in his first year, and that was with everyone operating out of an entirely new system. The Lions got bet- ter at running that system as the season went on, averaging 490.1 yards and 45.7 points in their final seven games. Now that players have a gained a wealth of experience in Moorhead's offense, hopes are high that the unit will be even more effective in 2017. Moorhead said he was "very en- trenched" at Penn State, adding that he doesn't view his current job as a step- pingstone to a head coaching post else- where. "My professional success is not [pred- icated] on becoming a head coach again," he said. "If it happens and it's the right situation, fantastic. If not, that's not going to lessen or diminish anything from my end. It's great to be at Penn State. It's great to be the offensive coor- dinator here. If a situation arises and it's right, I'll listen to what people have to say and consider it on an individual basis." Defensive coordinator Brent Pry said he, too, is happy at Penn State. While he wouldn't pass up a head coaching op- portunity if the right situation presented itself, he said he doesn't feel any urgency to move on from his current role. "I love being at Penn State," he said. "I love working for James, I love our group, I love the way we do things. I'm not a guy that's driven to be a head coach. … So it's not something that I've pursued. There are phone calls that you field, and I think some guys will take it a little fur- ther. For me, I didn't want to waste any- body's time." Pry, a father of three, has made eight stops during his career and said that family considerations will factor into any decisions he makes about his future. "That's a huge part of it," he said. "It's not mentioned enough. There are a lot of hows and whys [that go into why] we do things as coaches as far as moving. That's a big part of it. I think that Coach Franklin does a tremendous job of just FOOTBALL Coordinators Moorhead, Pry set to return in 2017 MOORHEAD PRY

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