Alabama head coach Nick Saban retiring keeps Joe Paterno’s all-time bowl win record safe for a while.
Just when you thought the coaching carousel in college football was coming to a full and complete stop, a gigantic meteor hit the college football world on Wednesday evening. Alabama head coach Nick Saban reportedly has decided to retire, bringing a close to one of the best coaching careers in college football history. And with the retirement of Saban, one massive coaching job has just become available to fill.
Nick Saban was 2-3 against Penn State during his time as head coach at Michigan State. Penn State won the first two meetings with the Spartans with Saban in charge, but Michigan State blew the doors off the Nittany Lions in 1997 with a 49-14 victory. Penn State returned the favor the following year with a 51-28 victory at home, but Saban won the last matchup in the Land Grant Trophy series in 1999 before he moved on to become the next head coach at LSU in 2000. Saban left Michigan State on a high note with a 9-2 season that included wins over Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame.
Saban won the first of his seven national titles at LSU with the BCS championship in 2003. Success at LSU led to an opportunity to return to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins, but two years with the Dolphins led to a return to the SEC as the head coach of Alabama in 2007.
Saban coached Alabama against Penn State twice in a home-and-home series between the two schools in 2010 and 2011. Alabama was far too dominant for Penn State in those seasons and won 24-3 in Tuscaloosa in 2010 and 27-11 in Beaver Stadium in 2011, Saban’s last appearance in a Big Ten stadium. Saban’s all-time record against Penn State ended up being a winning one, by a slight margin of 4-3.
Saban will retire with a career record of 292-71-1 and a career bowl record of 19-12. Unless Saban has a change of heart, that means Joe Paterno’s career record 24 bowl victories remains safe for the foreseeable future.
Check out some classic photos from past Penn State-Northwestern games, including Joe Paterno’s 400th career win.
Penn State heads to Evanston, Illinois in Week 5 to take on the Northwestern Wildcats. The Nittany Lions will do so as a heavy favorite on the road in Big Ten play as they look to remain undefeated. Northwestern will be looking for a massive upset nobody sees coming after coming from behind to top Minnesota in overtime a week ago.
Penn State and Northwestern isn’t exactly a classic Big Ten matchup, but the two schools have played some close games over the years. And the game tend to be defensive battles with scrappy play from start to finish. Northwestern will look to keep that mentality going as it looks to keep things at least respectable against Penn State.
Here is a look back at some of the best photos available from previous meetings in this series, including a historic milestone victory for former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.
One such historical question is this: What if Penn State joined the #B1G in 1973, not 1993? Life would have been very different.
USC and Penn State are two proud college football programs which expect to compete for championships. They have both achieved a lot on the gridiron. USC has thrived for a much longer period of time, but over the past 45 years, Penn State has had more success.
These programs have forged so many achievements that one would think they have intersected a lot. However, they haven’t. They met in the 1982 Fiesta Bowl, a moderately meaningful bowl at the time but not a game with national championship implications. The 2009 and 2017 Rose Bowls similarly did not affect the national title picture for either team. These teams should have a bigger, more important shared history, but they don’t.
Ask yourself this question: What if Penn State had moved to the Big Ten Conference in 1973, not 1993 (when it actually did join the Big Ten)?
How different would the history of college football have become?
John McKay of USC left the Trojans after the 1975 season to pursue an NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Paterno remained at Penn State for over 40 years as head coach. If Penn State had joined the Big Ten two decades earlier, Paterno and McKay might have met in a Rose Bowl. It’s something which never happened, all while Paterno became one of the few coaches in college football history to make the Sugar, Cotton, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls (due to Penn State having independent status at the time).
One can come up with more follow-up questions to the hypothetical of Penn State joining the Big Ten in the early 1970s. One such follow-up: Would Penn State have busted up the monopoly Ohio State and Michigan had on Rose Bowl berths in the Big Ten at the time? From the 1968 season (1969 Rose Bowl) through the 1980 season (1981 Rose Bowl), the Buckeyes and Wolverines were the only Big Ten teams to make the Rose Bowl. Penn State could have dramatically reshaped that story if it ever had a chance to compete in the Big Ten back then.
USC and Penn State never playing in the Rose Bowl during the McKay-John Robinson era at Heritage Hall is one of the great “missed connections” in college football history.
At least next year, USC and Penn State will be able to play regularly, something they weren’t able to do in past decades. A new era of this underplayed series can begin.
Joe Paterno had the perfect summary of what made Jim Brown so great on the football field.
The football world lost an absolute icon this week with the passing of legendary running back Jim Brown. The former Cleveland Brown and Syracuse standout is remembered as arguably the best running back in football history and is rightfully considered one of the best players of all time in the sport, regardless of position. And Penn State saw firsthand just how great Brown was.
Penn State played Syracuse three times with Jim Brown on the Syracuse roster. In 1954, Penn State outdueled Brown and Syracuse in a battle of running backs starring a pair of hall of famers, and perhaps the best players in school history. Brown carried the football 20 times for 159 yards and scored three touchdowns, kicked two extra points and recorded an interception and 95 kickoff return yards for Syracuse. Penn State’s Lenny Moore countered with 146 rushing yards on 22 carries with a touchdown as Penn State edged Syracuse by a final score of 21-20.
Joe Paterno was an assistant coach at the time on the Penn State staff, working under Rip Engle. Clearly, Brown’s impact left a lasting impression on Paterno, and years later he offered a pretty simple explanation for what made Brown so great.
Clark Judge, a veteran NFL writer, recalled an interaction he had with Paterno at the 1963 Maxwell Awards in Philadelphia. Paterno was in attendance at the annual awards banquet when Brown was being honored as the Bert Bell Award winner as the top player in professional football. Asked what made Brown so great, Paterno had the only explanation needed.
Bill O’Brien watch continues as the Patriots search for an offensive coordinator
Former Penn State head coach [autotag]Bill O’Brien[/autotag] could soon be back in the NFL, and he could be taking on the role he held prior to being hired by Penn State.
O’Brien, currently the offensive coordinator at Alabama, had his interview with the New England Patriots to talk about the vacancy at offensive coordinator. O’Brien has long been the easy subject of various coaching rumors in recent years since his return to the college game at Alabama, but this could be the gig that lures him back to the NFL if all goes well.
O’Brien is still considered by NFL reporters to be the favorite to land the offensive coordinator job with the Patriots, as we previously mentioned and currently reiterated by Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, via Twitter.
The #Patriots have interviewed #Bama OC Bill O'Brien today for their vacant OC job, sources say. He's considered a top candidate.
O’Brien was not the last person scheduled to interview for the job with New England, however. As noted by Rapoport, it is believed the Patriots will be done with interviews soon.
O’Brien was hired by Penn State to be the head coach of the football program as the successor to [autotag]Joe Paterno[/autotag] (following interim head coach Tom Bradley) in 2012. He had previously spent the 2011 season as the offensive coordinator for the Patriots, a role he held for one season after serving as the team’s quarterback coach from 2009 through 2010 and two other roles on the staff the previous two seasons. Penn State was O’Brien’s first head coaching job in his career.
In two seasons as Penn State’s head coach, O’Brien accumulated back-to-back winning seasons despite the program being hammered by NCAA sanctions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. O’Brien went 15-9 as Penn State’s head coach. Following the 2013 season, O’Brien accepted a job offer to become the head coach of the Houston Texans. O’Brien spent six seasons as the coach of the Texans, where he was 52-48 overall but just 2-4 in the postseason. He was fired following an 0-4 start to the 2020 season.
In 2021, O’Brien joined the Alabama coaching staff under head coach Nick Saban, filling the role of offensive coordinator after Steve Sarkisian left the role to become the head coach at Texas.
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Remembering Tamba Hali’s iconic strip-sack that clinched a signature win over Ohio State in 2005.
Penn State has off on this October 8, but today marks the anniversary of one of the most iconic regular-season victories in program history. It was on this day in 2005 when Beaver Stadium had one of its biggest nights as Penn State upset Ohio State to announce to the college football world that Penn State was back from the dead.
Penn State won five games in back-to-back seasons in 2000 and 2001 and then won three games in 2003 and just four games in 2004. It was the worst five-year stretch for Penn State under head coach [autotag]Joe Paterno[/autotag] of his career, leading to many wondering if the game had passed by Penn State and Paterno. But the 2005 season started with three straight wins in non-conference play and Big Ten play ignited with a wild comeback at Northwestern. Penn State then smashed No. 18 Minnesota at home, 44-14, to set the stage for a visit from College GameDay for a matchup between No. 16 Penn State and No. 6 Ohio State. This was the game Penn State fans were waiting for as it presented the Nittany Lions a chance to make a loud statement about the status of the football program, and the students were all in with a student section whiteout, years before Penn State enacted stadium-wide whiteouts. Those who were at the game, including myself, may still say that was one of the loudest games ever witnessed in Beaver Stadium.
Penn State’s defense was impressive on that October night. Ohio State had just 230 yards of offense and turned the football over three times. The defense had to be that good, because Ohio State’s defense was also dominant all night long. Penn State managed just 195 yards of total offense.
[autotag]Michael Robinson[/autotag] completed 11 of 20 passes for just 78 yards, but he ran for 52 yards and a touchdown. [autotag]Tony Hunt[/autotag] led all players with 64 rushing yards, each one as difficult to gain as they would come on this night highlighted by the defenses.
Ohio State struck first with a field goal in the first quarter, but Penn State scored two touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 14-3 lead with a [autotag]Derrick Williams[/autotag] touchdown run of 13 yards and Robinson’s one-yard touchdown run midway through the quarter. Ohio State would close the gap with their final score of the night with a Smith touchdown run from 10 yards out in the final minute of the first half.
The only scoring in the second half came on the leg of [autotag]Kevin Kelly[/autotag], a 41-yarder early in the third quarter. From there, the defenses for both teams took control. Ohio State’s best chance to score in the second half came in the form of a missed 50-yard field goal.
[autotag]Tamba Hali[/autotag] put the game on ice when he easily got around his blocker on the edge and raced toward an unsuspecting Troy Smith, who would go on to win a Heisman Trophy the following season. Smith lost the football on impact and Penn State recovered. And Hali simply walked off the field as composed as they can come, as if it was just another play. Business as usual for a player who would go on to make a living in the NFL doing this very thing.
After the game, Kirk Herbstreit credited the Penn State student section by proclaiming them to be the best student section in the country.
Penn State was upset the following weekend at Michigan on a last-second touchdown by the Wolverines when Chad Henne found Mario Manningham in the endzone as time expired in a wild fourth quarter in Ann Arbor. Penn State trailed Michigan 10-3 going into the fourth quarter and exploded for 22 points, but gave up 17 to come up on the wrong end of a 27-25 final score. But that was the only regular season loss for Penn State in the 2005 season.
Penn State went on to win the remainder of their games, including a 35-14 victory over No. 14 Wisconsin as Penn State went on to win the Big Ten championship and advance to the Orange Bowl. The Rose Bowl was being used to host that year’s BCS National Championship Game between USC and Texas, which turned out to be one of the most epic games in college football history. Penn State’s Orange Bowl was also quite a memorable game, at least for Penn State fans.
In a season otherwise dominated by USC and Texas, who would go on to play for the BCS National Championship, Penn State was one play away from at least having an argument to being considered for the national championship. But none of it would have even be possible if not for that one night in October.
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Best photos from Penn State’s first national championship season in 1982
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Penn State’s first national championship. The 1982 season for the Nittany Lions went 11-1 during the 1982 season with the only loss of the year coming on the road against Alabama in early October, a week after a controversial victory over Nebraska that lives in infamy in Lincoln. Penn State’s march to its first national championship included some big wins against ranked opponents, headlined by the Nebraska victory, with a shutout of West Virginia, a road win at Notre Dame, and a home win against rival Pitt to secure a spot in the Sugar Bowl.
Penn State took on Herschel Walker and No. 1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans as the underdog, but years of building a national power finally came to fruition for head coach [autotag]Joe Paterno[/autotag]. A 27-23 victory over the Bulldogs allowed Penn State to celebrate its first national championship.
Here are some of the best photos from Penn State’s 1982 season found in the photo archives, including the victory in the 1983 Sugar Bowl.
Remembering the time Penn State lost the nation’s top recruit to Virginia Tech because of a coin flip.
When James Franklin was introduced as head coach at Penn State, he set a mission to dominate the state on the recruiting trail. Franklin has done well in securing some of the top talent from within the state on a fairly regular occasion, with some years netting more of the state’s top talent than others, but sometimes the best player in the state ultimately decides to go to a different school.
That was the case back in 2000 years ago when Kevin Jones committed to Virginia Tech over Penn State. It is a story that has lived with Penn State and Virginia Tech fans for years and was recently highlighted with a look back at the decision by The Athletic.
Jones was a multi-sport standout in high school and he was a native of Chester, Pennsylvania. Jones was the first recipient of the U.S. Army Player of the Year Award as a senior and he was rated as the nation’s top recruit, not just the top recruit in Pennsylvania. Naturally, former Penn State head coach [autotag]Joe Paterno[/autotag] wanted to keep Jones close to home, but the decision came down to Penn State and the rising national power that was Virginia Tech, home to Mike Vick and a legitimate national title contender at the time.
Jones ended up deciding to go to Virginia Tech and revealed his decision in one of the earliest nationally televised commitment decisions that has become so common today.
“If you’re a blue-chipper from Pennsylvania, you go to Penn State. But I’ve always been a little contrary,” Jones said to ESPN in 2011. “On the day of my press conference, I still hadn’t decided between Virginia Tech and PSU. As I sat down in front of everybody, I had both jerseys with me. I pulled the Penn State jersey out of a bag and said, “I will … not be attending Penn State.” Then I ripped off my sweater and had a Mike Vick jersey on underneath. The entire room was flabbergasted.”
It was an early signing announcement press conference stunt at the time, and it rankled many Penn State fans following the recruiting buzz along the way.
Jones has made it known it was a tough decision for him to choose between Penn State and Virginia Tech. Now, all these years later, Jones says the decision came down to a flip of a coin. And he flipped the coin in the bathroom leading up to his announcement. From The Athletic;
Jones had a Penn State jersey in his possession, but he also had a Virginia Tech one. His indecision leading up to the bathroom coin flip forced him to prepare for all contingencies.
So what if the coin had landed on heads? It is an amazing question to explore with our imaginations today, knowing what we know about what happened with Penn State’s football success and failures in the years to come.
It is unlikely Paterno would have used his freshman prize Jones as a featured quarterback in the 2000 season with [autotag]Rashard Casey[/autotag] entrenched as his starter. But freshman [autotag]Zack Mills[/autotag] emerged on the scene in 2001. Could that have been the beginning of Jones as Penn State’s quarterback? Would it have avoided a 5-6 season for the Nittany Lions? Very possibly. Mills was Penn State’s starting quarterback for the next three seasons before [autotag]Michael Robinson[/autotag] finally got his chance to lead the program back to respectability in 2005. Penn State went 3-9 in 2003 and 4-7 in 2004.
Penn State had losing seasons in three of the four years Jones played at Virginia Tech. The Hokies never quite reached their national title aspirations while Jones was in Blacksburg, where Frank Beamer was using the former No. 1 recruit as a running back quite effectively. It would seem things worked out for Jones at Virginia Tech overall, and perhaps he avoided the misery that was playing Penn State football during that rough era for the program on the field.
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A look at where Penn State stands today 10 years after the passing of Joe Paterno
It may be hard to believe, but longtime Penn State head coach Joe Paterno passed away on this day a full decade ago. To think about how much has happened in that time can be overwhelming, to say the least, because a lot has most definitely happened.
Paterno passed away at the age of 85 of lung cancer, on Jan. 22, 2012. His death came just months after he had been removed as head coach of the Penn State football program amid tense circumstances surrounding the program as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal that rocked the entire community and college football world. The legacy of Paterno has been debated to various degrees over the years as a result of this, and it is not something we are about to dive into here.
Instead, now may be a good time to reflect on the current state of the program and the university a decade after the man who essentially shaped the image of both has passed.
Penn State obviously took a massive PR hit as a result of the Sandusky scandal, but the university also appears to be doing just fine these days. Onward State took a look at Penn State’s most recent financial statements, and it reported Penn State’s financial growth over the past 14 years has grown 181% from 2007. Even in the onslaught of the scandal and riding through a pandemic, nobody should be losing sleep over the stability of the university in my not-at-all professional opinion.
As for the football program, it has definitely weathered the storm that was the scandal’s impact. The NCAA dropped a sledgehammer of sanctions on the football program and university, putting Paterno’s successor Bill O’Brien in an even more troubling spot as head coach of the Nittany Lions. A four-year bowl ban and a significant cut in available scholarships hampered the Penn State football program, leaving many national experts to suggest the program was destined for irrecoverable failure.
In two seasons under O’Brien with no bowl hopes and a number of transfers and a lack of depth, Penn State went 8-4 and 7-5. The following season, James Franklin was hired to succeed O’Brien, who left to coach the Houston Texans. The NCAA sanctions against the program were lifted in the midst of Franklin’s first season, allowing Franklin to get on the fast track to rebuilding the program as best he can. In three years, Penn State football was celebrating a Big Ten championship in Indianapolis and playing in the first of three New Years Six bowl games in a four-year span. Penn State hadn’t experienced a run like that since its first national championship era in the early 1980s. Things seemed pretty darn good.
The past two seasons have certainly left something to be desired when it comes to expectations and success on the field, something Franklin is surely well aware of. A worldwide pandemic led to Penn State getting off on a historically bad foot in 2020 and the 2021 season failed to keep up the momentum after an encouraging start. In the past two seasons, Penn State compiled a .500 record, opening the door to increased criticism of Franklin’s ability to win (perhaps even more vocally than when Paterno went 7-16 in 2003 and 2004, thanks to the increased volume of social media). But overall, Penn State has proven it has more than recovered from the sanction phase and continues to be in a position to thrive.
The culture of Penn State is still built on many of the same principles put in place by Paterno, although the bells and whistles surrounding the gameday atmosphere have certainly been done up a little more in recent years. Paterno leading the team out of the tunnel in Beaver Stadium with a flashy dance party atmosphere certainly doesn’t feel like it would have ever happened, but the basic routine is still the same to this day. It just looks a little more dazzling.
Looking back on the past decade, there are still plenty of 409 stickers and magnets on cars and RVs making their way around the state on their way to Beaver Stadium on Saturdays, and the divide even within the fanbase on how to properly put into perspective the legacy of Paterno is still a hot topic at times. But a snapshot of Penn State football overall today bears many more similarities to the best days of the Paterno run. And perhaps that is something most can agree on, for better or worse.
Penn State bowl history: Joe Paterno’s final bowl, Urban Meyer’s final game at Florida in the 2011 Outback Bowl
By the time the 2010 season came around, Penn State had developed quite a pleasant history against SEC teams in the Outback Bowl. In three previous appearances, Penn State destroyed Auburn in 1996, spoiled the college finale of Tim Couch in a win over Kentucky in 1999, and pulled away with a big scoop-n-score for a win against Tennessee in 2007. But the 2011 Outback Bowl saw a different result against one of the teams Penn State has never recorded a win against, the Florida Gators.
The 2011 Outback Bowl was hyped for a coaching showdown between Joe Paterno, the all-time wins leader and all-time bowl wins leader with a pair of national championships to his name, and Urban Meyer, also owner of a pair of national championship rings during his time with the Florida Gators. Meyer had announced his retirement from being the head coach of the Gators at the conclusion of the 2010 regular season, setting up his final game with Florida to come against Paterno’s Nittany Lions in the Outback Bowl.
Penn State hoped to send Meyer into his brief retirement with a loss, but the Gators took control of the game in the fourth quarter when it mattered the most and Florida turned a 24-20 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter into a 37-24 victory. Penn State was in a position to potentially take the Outback Bowl, but Ahmad Black returned a Matt McGloin interception 80 yards for a touchdown in the final minute of the game.
It was a long afternoon for McGloin as the Florida defense intercepted Penn State’s starting quarterback five times. Yet, in spite of the plethora of interceptions, Penn State had opportunities to keep things close and get away with a win against the Gators.
Penn State held a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to a McGloin touchdown pass to Derek Moye from five yards out midway through the first quarter. But miscues helped Florida take the lead in the second quarter. A 16-yard touchdown run by Omarius Hines came just two plays after McGloin was intercepted on a drive that had Penn State pinned by their own goal. Florida took over at the 15-yard line. After the teams exchanged punts on the next two possessions, Florida’s special teams blocked a punt by Penn State and returned for a touchdown to give Florida a 14-7 advantage.
But Penn State did respond to that rough sequence. Penn State went 72 yards on five plays, highlighted by a McGloin 44-yard pass to Derek Moye, and Michael Zordich capped the drive with a game-tying touchdown with 4:09 remaining to play in the second quarter. The Penn State defense forced a quick three-and-out on Florida’s ensuing possession, and Gators punter Chas Henry shanked the punt for just 14 yards to the Florida 37-yard line. That gave Penn State a chance to take a 17-14 lead into halftime with a Collin Wagner field goal from 20 yards out after Penn State was stopped inside the 10-yard line after a big 30-yard gain by Evan Royster on the first play of the series.
Quarterback Matt McGloin of the Penn State Nittany Lions runs for a touchdown against the Florida Gators on January 1, 2011, in the 25th Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
McGloin gave Penn State a 24-17 lead late in the third quarter with a two-yard run after the defense had forced a turnover on downs at the Florida 36-yard line. But it was all downhill for McGloin and the Penn State offense from there. Florida took the lead for good on a Mike Gillislee run on the goal line after a costly pass interference penalty was called on Penn State’s Malcolm Willis on a 3rd and 11 play from the 15-yard line.
As history would eventually show, this was Meyer’s final game at Florida but not his coaching career. Meyer would spend the 2011 season in the broadcast booth for ABC and ESPN before he would return to the sidelines as the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, where he would capture another national championship in the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Little did we know at the time, but this was also the final bowl game coached by Paterno. Paterno was back on the sidelines for the 2011 season, where he would eventually climb to the Division 1 record for most all-time victories. Of course, Paterno’s career came to a shocking end amid controversy stemming from the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The legacies of Paterno and Meyer have taken their bruises in more recent years, but it made for one terrific coaching storyline in the 2011 Outback Bowl. Unfortunately for Penn State, the Nittany Lions were on the losing end for the first time in the Outback Bowl.
