...in 44 years at Penn State, making him the third winningest college football coach in history. He's had 38 winning seasons (one more than Bear Bryant); won 24 bowl games, more than anyone else; had five undefeated, untied seasons; and won two national championships. Not too shabby!
(But the best stat I found on Joe Pa is that he's been on Penn State's coaching staff for 680 of their 1,202 games, 56.6% of all games played by the program dating back to its inception in 1887!)
Today in the Times, it says that:
...on the day [Pete] Carroll bade farewell to the troops at U.S.C., Penn State issued a release that its football players had the highest graduation success rate, known as G.S.R., 85 percent, and the highest federal graduation rate, 89 percent, among teams ranked in this season’s final top 25.
(I have no idea what a federal graduation rate is, but 89 percent sounds like a high number.)
I'd say Paterno has had a pretty good run. But he won only two national championships in 44 years, or one every 22 years (if my calculator is correct). Lou Holtz, by comparison, had one in only 11 years at Notre Dame, which is twice as good (again, calculator). Then, of course, there was Dan Devine. He won a national championship in only six seasons in South Bend and was run out of town by an angry mob. So my question is, could Joe Pa have survived at ND with that crummy record of his?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment