Paul Chryst comments on the hiring of new OC Bobby Engram in Monday’s press release
On Monday afternoon, Wisconsin officially announced the hiring of Bobby Engram as their next offensive coordinator. Engram comes to Madison from the Baltimore Ravens, where he most recently served as tight ends coach.
Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst and Engram go back to Chryst’s days as head coach of Pittsburgh, where Engram served as the wide receivers coach in 2012-2013.
In Wisconsin’s official press release, the Badger head coach gave his thoughts on the hire:
“I’m really excited for our players and for our program,” said head coach Paul Chryst, who enters his eighth season at the helm of his alma mater. “Bobby is a great person who has tremendous knowledge of the game. I’ve seen first-hand the impact he can have on players and there’s no doubt in my mind that he will help our program both on and off the field. He knows this place and is aligned with our culture, and I think that’s important. With his experience, he brings a fresh perspective that will help our program moving forward.”
Ex-Seahawk Bobby Engram has been hired as the Wisconsin Badgers’ offensive coordinator after coaching the last eight years for the Ravens.
Former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Bobby Engram has earned himself a new coaching position. Engram was hired as the Wisconsin Badgers’ new offensive coordinator over the weekend as first reported by ESPN.
Engram worked the last eight years with the Baltimore Ravens first coaching the wide receivers and then the tight ends.
The Seahawks Legend played in Seattle for seven seasons, including the year the team appeared in Super Bowl XL against the Steelers. He also spent time with the Bears and the Chiefs over his NFL career.
During his time in the Emerald City from 2001 to 2008, Engram logged 399 receptions for 4,859 receiving yards for the Seahawks.
After the past week provided tons of speculation surrounding connections between Wisconsin and Baltimore Ravens tight ends coach Bobby Engram, the Badgers have reportedly made the hire official.
Engram has a number of Wisconsin connections, most notably with his son, Dean, playing cornerback for the Badgers. He will replace Joe Rudolph, who departed Madison for Virginia Tech’s offensive line coach position in early January.
What are Engram’s connections to Paul Chryst and how will he likely fit in with the Badgers? Here are four things to know about the newest member of Wisconsin’s coaching staff:
The University of Wisconsin hired Ravens tight ends coach Bobby Engram to be their new offensive coordinator
The Baltimore Ravens have seen many coaches get hired away for great opportunities over the course of their franchise history. It’s a testament to how well Baltimore trains their coaches and puts them in positions to be successful, as it leads to other teams noticing how great they are.
The latest Ravens coach to depart for another gig is now-former tight ends coach Bobby Engram, who is now in-line to be the next offensive coordinator at the University of Wisconsin. The news was first reported by Jeff Potrykus, followed by multiple other sources.
Per official source: Bobby Engram is #Badgers new offensive coordinator. Signed, sealed and delivered.
SOURCE: Ravens TE coach Bobby Engram is signed on to become the new offensive coordinator at Wisconsin. The 49-year-old former NFL WR has been an NFL assistant for the past decade. @jaypo1961 first reported the hire.
Engram spent 14 years in the NFL with three different teams, accumulating 650 catches for 7,751 yards and 35 touchdowns. He retired in 2011 and began his coaching career, and in 2014 was hired by Baltimore as their wide receivers coach. He was then moved to be the team’s tight end coach in 2018, where he had success working with players such as All-Pro Mark Andrews.
One of Penn State’s best all-time players is returning to the Big Ten to be an offensive cooridnator.
Penn State’s all-time leader in receiving yards is now a Wisconsin Badgers. Bobby Engram has been hired by the Badgers to be the new offensive coordinator for the program, according to multiple reports on Saturday afternoon.
Engram had been the tight ends coach for the Baltimore Ravens on the latest stop on his coaching career. Now he will be returning to the Big Ten for the first time since last suiting up in a Penn State uniform in 1995. Engram will now be reunited with Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst, who previously had Engram on his coaching staff at Pitt in 2012 and 2013.
Of course, Engram’s move to Wisconsin comes at a pretty interesting time. The Badgers are hot on the pursuit of landing transfer quarterback Caleb Williams, from Oklahoma. And it just so happens that Engram may have a bit of a connection to Williams, as noted by Stewart Mandel of The Athletic…
Most notable for having a son on the Badgers who went to high school with a certain QB still in the portal. https://t.co/Vhp0ULq7QS
This is not to say Engram isn’t qualified for a role as offensive coordinator. Quite the contrary. Engram has been establishing himself as an offensive coach ready to make the move to an offensive coordinator’s role. but if it helps Wisconsin land the biggest quarterback prize in the transfer portal, well then, good for the Badgers.
It is a shame that Engram hasn’t had the opportunity to come back to Penn State in any coaching capacity to this point. He already has left his mark on the Penn State program as arguably the best wide receiver in school history, an argument that is backed up by the numbers even as more recent receivers have been exploding up the school’s all-time receiving list.
The University of Wisconsin is reportedly targeting a Ravens coach to be their next offensive coordinator
The Baltimore Ravens are widely regarded as a coaching factory. They have shaped many different coaches (and even executives) into people who are thriving in bigger roles with other organizations.
The team lost a plethora of different coaches during the 2021 offseason, and it appears it will be that way again in 2022. After announcing that they had parted ways with defensive coordinator Don Martindale, it was reported Tom VanHaaren and Jamison Hensley of ESPN that the University of Wisconsin is targeting current Baltimore tight ends coach Bobby Engram to be their next offensive coordinator.
#Wisconsin is targeting Baltimore Ravens tight ends coach Bobby Engram to be its next offensive coordinator, sources tell me and @jamisonhensley. An agreement could be finalized soon.
Engram worked on Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst's staff at Pitt in 2012 and 2013.
A look back at Penn State’s first appearance in the Outback Bowl, a muddy blowout of Auburn
Penn State’s first trip to the Outback Bowl was a fun one for the Nittany Lions. Penn State blew away Auburn in what was supposed to be a fairly even matchup between the Nittany Lions and Tigers. A season after going undefeated and winning the Rose Bowl, Penn State’s 43-14 victory over Auburn helped set the tone for what would turn out to be another promising 1996 season the following fall.
Penn State handled Auburn in less than ideal weather conditions on January 1, 1996. A combination of heavy rain and mud on the field made for a sloppy game, and Penn State capitalized on Auburn’s inability to adapt to the weather conditions with their explosive offense and steady defense. After the game, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno suggested his team just had more character to adapt to the playing conditions.
“You can’t let the weather bother you,” Paterno said after the win. “If you try to fight it, it’ll even be worse. It takes character to do that, and I think our kids showed a lot of character out there today.”
The 1996 Outback Bowl was the 17th bowl victory for Paterno. He had set the record for most bowl victories the previous season with Penn State’s Rose Bowl victory over Auburn, and he would go on to add seven more for 24 career bowl victories, the most in college football history. Alabama head coach Nick Saban enters the 2021-22 bowl season with 17 career bowl victories, for the sake of comparison.
Penn State wide receiver Bobby Engram took MVP honors in his final game with the Nittany Lions. Engram had 113 receiving yards with a pair of touchdowns. even he was surprised how much Penn State dominated the Tigers.
“On a day like today, a game like this is won in the trenches, and we did it on both sides of the ball,” Engram said after the game. “I couldn’t believe just how dominant we were.”
Penn State and Auburn played a tight first quarter with Penn State kicker Brett Conway scoring the only points of the first quarter with a short field goal. Auburn took a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Nix (father of Bo Nix) to Robert Baker. Conway added two more field goals to take a 9-7 lead as Auburn’s defense hung tough for a while, but a late touchdown pass from Wally Richardson to Mike Archie just before halftime gave Penn State a 16-7 lead at the break.
And then Penn State ripped Auburn apart in the third quarter. Richardson completed a touchdown pass to Engram early in the third quarter. A few minutes later, Richardson completed his third touchdown pass of the game, this time to Stephen Pitts, from four yards out for a dominant 29-7 lead.
“That was the turning point,” former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden said of the late touchdown just before halftime. “And when Penn State took their first series in the second half in for a score, we were in a catchup situation that we couldn’t handle.”
Curtis Enis added a touchdown run from the one-yard line for a 36-7 lead as Penn State blasted Auburn 27-0 in the third quarter alone. Just one minute later, Richardson completed his second touchdown strike to Engram from 20-yards. Penn State completed a 40-0 run before Auburn managed to put any more points on the board in the fourth quarter.
The Penn State defense picked off two passes by Auburn’s Nix, who completed just five of 25 pass attempts before being pulled for the blowout. the defense also forced five fumbles and recovered two.
Penn State WR Jahan Dotson got a little emotional following his school-record performance against Maryland
You can have fun debating who the best wide receiver in Penn State’s program history is, but Jahan Dotson continues to make a strong case to be considered in the conversation. In his performance against Maryland in Week 10 of the 2021 season, Dotson added another debating point in his favor by not only setting a new Penn State school record, but smashing the old one in the process.
Dotson set a new Penn State school record for most receiving yards in a single game by racking up 242 yards against Maryland in a 31-14 victory on Nov. 6, 2021. Dotson now cruised past the previous record of 216 yards in a 2006 game against Northwestern.
Penn State's Jahan Dotson finished with a school-record 242 receiving yards vs Maryland. Dotson also tied his single-game career highs with 11 Rec and 3 TD.
The previous school record for receiving yards in a game was Deon Butler in 2006 vs Northwestern (216 Rec yds). pic.twitter.com/DMxys2WbUo
After the game, Dotson got a bit emotional reflecting on how his family helped him get to this point in his collegiate career.
Jahan Dotson emotional following his record-setting day as he talk about his family who was in attendance. Said they motivate him to be the best player/person he can be every day. pic.twitter.com/jhBt0eX6Is
Dotson is now the fourth player in Penn State history to have 200 receiving yards in a single game. In addition to Butler, the previous record-holder, Dotson joins O.J. McDuffie (212 yards vs. Boston College in 1992), and Bobby Engram. Engram is the only Penn State player with multiple 200-yard games with 200 yards against Rutgers in 1994 and 203 yards against Purdue in 1995.
Jahan Dotson has the school-record for most single-game receiving yards by a Penn State receiver.
Some of Penn State’s best all-time wide receivers, not surprisingly, have been responsible for turning in some of the program’s biggest single-game performances. But in the history of the Penn State program, just four games have seen a Penn State wide receiver eclipse the 200-yard mark, and it has happened just once since 1995.
Bobby Engram, the program’s all-time leading wide receiver, owns two of Penn State’s all-time 200-yard receiving performances, with one against Rutgers in 1994 and one more against Purdue the following season. Engram owns three of Penn State’s top-10 single-game receiving games, as he took advantage of a dreadful Rutgers program once more in 1995. Allen Robinson left his mark on the Penn State single-game receiving top 10 as well with three games standing out in the record books.
Penn State’s leading receiver heading into the 2021 season, Jahan Dotson, also makes an appearance on the top 10 list. And given that Dotson wants to leave a legendary mark at Penn State, he might just find a get another top 10 single-game performance in the top 10 before the end of the season.
Here’s a look at Penn State’s top 10 single-game receiving performances prior to the start of the 2021 season.
Another day, another watch list for Penn State wide receiver Jahan Dotson. While Dotson was representing Penn State at Big Ten media day in Indianapolis, he was named to the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award by the Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation.
Dotson was the Big Ten’s leading receiver in receiving yardage with 884 yards in nine games during the 2020 season. He also led the Big Ten with eight touchdowns. It is worth noting Dotson also played in more games than most receivers around the Big Ten, but he was third in the conference in average receiving yards per game (98.2) and he was among the Big Ten’s leaders in average yards per reception (17.0).
The Biletnikoff Award is awarded to college football’s top receiver, which is defined as any player who catches a pass and is not restricted to just wide receivers. This is a relatively new expansion of the criteria for the award. Of course, no player playing a position other than wide receiver has been able to take home the Biletnikoff Award yet.
Last year’s Biletnikoff Award winner was DeVonta Smith of Alabama, who also won the Heisman Trophy and went on to be a first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dotson will look to bring the Biletnikoff Award back to Happy Valley for the first time since the award was originally presented to former Nittany Lion Bobby Engram in 1994.
You can check out the entire Biletnikoff Award watch list here. Players can be added to the watch list as the season progresses.
Dotson was previously named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award for the nation’s top college football player.
