I put up a link to Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column, where he specifically mentioned Schiano as the replacement to Paterno. And it’s not the first time.

Nobody is more in the loop about pro-football than Peter King. Not only that, he is based out of New Jersey, and by nature must have some measure of contact with Schiano. He has said as much. Peter wrote previously that the only two jobs he could see Schiano leaving Rutgers for were, Penn State, or possibly the Chicago Bears.

If you read MMQB regularly, King talks about Penn State more than most college football teams, even stating that he almost went to Penn State. He may or may not be a “fan”, but on some level, I think he’s in the loop.

I don’t see Schiano as a savior. I look at him and Bradley as just about equally qualified. The difference in my opinion is that Greg Schiano went out did things on his own. It’s easy to recruit at Penn State, with top notch facilities and the old man behind you. It’s different when you actually have to make people believe that a 1-10 team might be good someday, or that 20,000 seat stadium might someday have 50,000 seats, and be full. It is still another to actually accomplish it. Also, I think the program needs the new blood. I don’t think we need wholesale changes, but a new guy, that we think we can trust, who has been all over the nation doing a real good job…I like it. That’s how I fall on it.

And I see Larry Johnson Sr. as the new Defensive Coordinator, and Tom Bradley as strong head coach for a team that I will instantly be a fan of.

Not to sound like a sceptical jerk or anything, but I’m supposed to believe that some rag like The Phanatic Magazine has the inside scoop on all of this?

For me it comes down to three or four guys:

(In random order)

Schiano, Bradley, Sgt. Slaughter, and maybe Al Golden.

For me, the only thing for certain is “Anyone but Jay”! Other than that, I don’t know.

Cowher is the undisputed number one best choice to succeed Paterno. Cowher’s teams are built for defense and running the ball….just like Joe’s best teams were (exception 1994). However that is a slim possibility, so I’m pulling for Schiano. The man can flat out coach. And he’ll have a lot better talent to work with at PSU than he does at Rutgers. And he can recruit very well. Imagine someone like Ray Rice running behind PSU’s offensive line as opposed to Rutgers’ o-line? Schiano can attract good football players to Rutgers, now imagine him recruiting with the PSU machine working with him. I’d prefer him to Bradley only because Bradley has never been a head coach and hasn’t been out of the PSU system in his life. Schiano brings with him experience of not only being a head coach but being at different programs where he no doubt learned quite a bit.

And no one better even mention Al Golden as a replacement. I have no clue why people are enamored with Al Golden!!! Who the hell is Al Golden?!!! Head coach at TEMPLE?! He’s done nothing to even warrant being in the discussion. Just because he is a PSU grad? We need to get away from this PSU nepotism and go outside the program for the next coach. Cowher or Schiano are the only candidates in my mind.

that this is Joe’s last year. I have been reading alot of the comments of the recent recruits that have signed and they all signal that they are being told a change is going to come, but it won’t rock the boat. Also the recent hospitalization of Joe doesn’t bode well, dehydration for an 80 year old man isn’t a great sign. And who is to say it was simply dehydration? It wouldn’t be the first time the PSU football staff has put on a media spin.
I look at it this way, you get Schiano you get a good energetic recruiter who can use all of the resources PSU will give him to turn the program into a serious contender, not an also ran.

I don’t want Joe to be pushed out but if he wants to retire after next year Schiano would be a fine replacement

LJSR, Bradley, Schiano, or Golden.

What happens if Temple wins 8 games this year and Rutgers 5?

I think GS would be a great fit and elevate Vandy to DC. It would be a nice mix…I am not sure how much LJSR has left in the tank, there was talk he wants this to be his last year not to long ago to focus on church.

Temple winning 8 games? Umm…..no. But even if said impossibility would happen, 8 wins in the MAC is in no way shape or form equivalent to 5 wins in the Big East. Despite the unfair reputation the Big East has, it is still a BCS conference with consistent national powers like West Virginia and Louisville. Who’s in the MAC? Marshall? I really can’t name another team off the top of my head. Isn’t Miami of Ohio in the MAC?

You’re right. We could do worse than Al Golden as next head coach. We could do Jay Paterno. My point is…we can do a hell of a lot better than him too.

the arguement against Tom not being a head coach is stupid…JoePa wasn’t a head coach before Rip stepped down…plus Tom Coached on the sideline when Joe was in the hospital and when he was in the booth…I am pulling for him, he is a classy guy and a good recruiter he works hard and he knows the program and the legacy of Paterno…the grand experiment will continue with him…truthfully if they did hire out of program I bet we would see a drop off in graduation rates as well as GPA…there is a reason why WE ARE PENN STATE, the kids education comes first and I for one want to see that tradition continue more than anything

Bradley and Schiano would basically be the same hire. Both are defensive minded coaches and great with recruiting. Even Golden would be along those same lines although more of a reach. And I’m fine with all of those because I don’t want our defensive progress to change.

But my main question is, what’s going to change on the offensive side of the ball. Galen’s not going to be around much longer and I think we all agree PSU can do better than JayPa. That what pushes me to believe that Schiano would be a better choice. He can bring some new offensive staff from Rutgers (although I don’t follow RU too closely and know if that is much of a step up) and keep PSU’s defensive staff in tact. That is unless Bradley is going to overhaul the offensive staff which puts us back to them being equal.

True, joe paterno wasn’t a head coach anywhere else before getting the PSU coaching job, but that was a different era in collegiate sports. The overwhelmingly vast majority of coaches were homegrown back then. Today’s college football is a TAD different than it was when Joe took over from Rip Engle. There’s more money involved, more and better athletes, and more competition. Whether that makes college football better or worse is another discussion.

The point is times have changed and for someone to take over the mantle of head coach of one of the most renowned college football programs in history without head coaching experience is to me a mistake. Must we remember that when Joe took over, Penn State wasn’t a national power by any means, merely an east coast power and east coast college football was viewed as inferior. Nowadays there is too much pressure to just hand over the head coaching job to someone who is unproven. Schiano has proven he can coach. He coached defense at PSU, Miami and in the pros. He is a head coach for a major university in the east coast and is getting results. I simply think he is a no-brainer over someone like Al Golden.

It is almost mandatory now that you have at least some prior head coaching experience before taking over a major program. Most new coaches today have coached at smaller colleges or have come up from 1-AA or 1-AAA or lower. Old Sweater Vest from Ohio springs to mind. Or if someone has jumped from program to program gaining experience, that seems to be also acceptable a la Bob Stoops. I feel Schiano has more to offer than Tom Bradley would.

Personally, I am more concerned with the changes to the assistant coaches than the Head Coaching Position. I think that Penn State will replace JoePa with a qualified candidate whether from within the current staff or not. It is what happens with the Assistant Coaches. Right now, JoePa has a good staff that has been with him and the school for a long time. I would hate to see a new coach come in and either mass fire or force a mass exodus. At the same time, I hope that some of the coaches are replaced and we get some change to the program (JayPa comes to mind).

Also, I think it is important that the Grand Experiment continues and gets back on track. Over the past couple of years the players have been mixed up with the law and breaking team rules too much to be ignored. I think the new coach needs to be able to reign these kids in and really get through to them that they are not just representing themselves but all of the Penn State Alum and fans.

Lastly, I think it is important for the coach to coach at PennState for the tradition of the program. I don’t see the school shelling out much more than a Million a year for the position which I am okay with since it sorta goes against the whole belief system we have in place. Student Athletes are just that: Students then Athletes, lets focus on the job at hand (School) and the money will come.

In fact, here is a snippet from an article I read the other day.

“Penn State does not pay outlandish salaries to anyone,” Spanier said. “We try to compensate all of our coaches fairly, and we are aware of the market forces. But we do feel there’s something special about being a coach at Penn State.

“So if someone wants to come and be a coach at Penn State to make lots of money and be rich, this isn’t the culture that supports that.”

Here is a link to the whole article.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1211205303128200.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

this comes from the source himself. I doubt a family would lie to each other….
The Tom Bradley ERA will begin soon enough.

—-—- Forwarded message —-—-
From: Spanier, Graham <gspanier@psu.edu>
Date: Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: paterno info leak
To: brianspanier

None. All fantasy.

—- Original Message —-
From: BRIAN SPANIER
To: Spanier, Graham; Spanier, Sandra
Sent: Mon Jun 02 17:06:21 2008
Subject: paterno info leak

Any truth to this?

http://daily.phanaticmag.com/search?q=paterno