Coaching Perspective – Penn State

We all know Joe Pa is the number one coach in Nittany Lion history but who else would be on the PSU mount Rushmore?  I’m sure Lion fans know but the rest of us, not so much.  Let’s take a look.

Not In Consideration (Chronological Order)

• No Coach: 1887-1891, 12-8-1 (4-1)

With no one guiding them the young program won a Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association title in 1891.

• George W. Hoskins: 1892-1895, 17-4-4

Hoskins was a player-coach for the 92-94 seasons.  No conflict of interest there.

• Samuel B. Newton: 1896-1898, 12-14
• Sam Boyle: 1899, 4-6-1
• Pop Golden: 1900-1902, 16-12-1
• Daniel A. Reed: 1903, 5-3

Reed would be a US Congressman from New York from 1919 until his death in 1959.

• Tom Fennell: 1904-1908, 33-17-1
• Bill Hollenback: 1909, 1911-1914, 28-9-4
• Jack Hollenback: 1910, 5-2-1

The Hollenbacks were brothers, Jack the older of the two.  Bill is a CFB Hall of Famer from his playing days at Penn when he was a three time all-American and a part of the famed 1908 national title team that played Jim Thorpe’s Carlisle team to a 6-6 tie.

• Dick Harlow: 1915-1917, 20-8

Harlow had much more success at Western Maryland where he would coach future PSU head man Rip Engle, who would be a life long friend.  Perhaps Harlow is one of the reasons Engle ended up in Happy Valley, which as you will see had even bigger ramifications.

• Joe Bedenk: 1949, 5-4

The PSU all-American (1923) was an assistant for years but after the ’49 season requested to going back to his OL coaching duties.  He was also the PSU baseball coach from 1931-1962.

• Tom Bradley: 2011, 1-3 (1-2) (interim)
• Bill O’Brien: 2012-2013, 15-1 (10-6)
• James Franklin: 2014-present, 7-5 (2-6)

Did Not Place (4th)

Hugo Bezdek: 1918-1929, 65-30-11

Bob Higgins (see below) and Bezdek are like splitting hairs.  They are both the forefathers to modern PSU football and were instrumental at putting the Lions into major level football.  Bezdek guided his 1922 team to the Rose Bowl and in 1919-21 his teams were a combined 22-1-4.  The second half of his tenure wasn’t quite as good as that first third so I’m giving the edge to Higgins…barely.

Bronze Medal

Bob Higgins: 1930-1948, 91-57-11

God I had a hard time picking between 3rd and 4th all time.  Higgins won more games but coached 7 more seasons than Bezdek and had 8 seasons of .500 or worse football.  The tie breaker was the second half of Higgins’ run.  Following the 1938 season, Higgins did not have a losing mark.  He had 5 seasons of 1 or fewer losses, ended the year ranked 3 times, peaking at 4th in 1947 and would tie in the 1947 Cotton Bowl after a 9-0 regular season.  His run in the 1940s set the stage for Rip Engle and put the program into more national prominence than Bezdek did.

Silver Medal

Rip Engle: 1950-1965, 104-48-4

Seven times in his career were the Lions in the final polls, 4 times did his team play in a bowl game, 3 wins in said bowl games and zero losing seasons through his tenure.  During his best stretch (’59 to ’62) his team went a combined 33-10.  At almost any other school Engle is their best coach with this longevity and consistent winning.  Instead he gets second because he was dumb enough to bring his former player from Brown onto his staff at Penn State…

Gold Medal

Joe Paterno: 1966-2011, 409-136-3 (95-54)

…And this is said former player.  Not sure what you can say about the all-time winningest coach that the record doesn’t already show.  Included in over 400 wins is his 24-12-1 mark in bowl games, 2 national titles, 3 Big Ten titles, 24 COY honors over various organizations, 1986 SI Sportsman of the Year award and a 2007 inductee into the CFB Hall of Fame.  His teams finished unranked just 10 times (not counting 2011) in his entire tenure with 29 of those finishes inside the top 10.  He was the first coach to win all four of the major bowl games as well as the Cotton Bowl and had 5 unbeaten/untied teams.  For a program as historic as PSU with well over 800 wins I think the most telling thing about Joe Pa is that just a hair under 50% of those wins came from him.  Incredible.