Profiles In Plagiarism: Al Golden

In the spirit of MGoBlog’s brilliant “Profiles In Heroism” series, this is the third installment of a semi-regular feature in which we’ll examine future head coaching candidates at Penn State. All readers are highly encouraged to suggest candidates for future installments. Previously: Tom Bradley and Greg Schiano.

Al Golden (wikipedia) — Head Coach, Temple University (Two years, 5-19)

Age: 38

Coaching Experience: University of Virginia (Graduate Assistant, 1994-96), Boston College (Linebackers, 1997-99), Penn State (Linebackers and Recruiting Coordinator, 2000), University of Virgiania (Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers 2001-05), Temple University (Head Coach and Special Teams, 2006-07).

Playing Career: Penn State tight end, 1987-1991. Senior captain, 1991. Earned the Ridge Riley Award in 1991, given annually to a player who displays excellence in scholarship, sportsmanship, friendship and leadership. Hung around for one year as a New England Patriots tight end before entering coaching. Caught a memorable touchdown in a road upset against #1 Notre Dame in 1990.

Background. Golden has been a rising star in college coaching ever since he took a graduate assistant gig at Virginia under George Welsh. During that first stint at UVa, he worked with James Farrior and Jamie Sharper, who both went on to NFL success. Yes, he was only a graduate assistant at that point. At Boston College, he coached a another pair of all-conference linebackers who were NFL draft picks, and was part of a coaching staff which led Boston College out of its mid-90’s doldrums and set the stage for the generally solid, if not spectacular, Boston College teams we continue to see today.  He returned to Penn State for one season before receiving the proverbial offer he couldn’t refuse, especially for a guy who just entered his 30’s – he became the defensive coordinator at Virginia.  Against the advice of many, he took the Temple job two years ago.  They showed definite improvement this season, and gave Penn State serious problems during the first half of an eventual 31-0 loss.  Still, if you ask any Penn State fan, that was the ugliest 31-0 victory in school history.  Temple was totally in the game, and at times, moving the ball at will.

Recruiting.  Imagine trying to recruit kids at Rutgers…but 50 times harder than that.   Temple is a program with one winning season since 1980 with awful facilities.  They play in a cavernous professional stadium in front of 1,500 fans.  It’s located in North Philly.  I mean, it’s Temple.  The punchline of modern football.  Golden’s Temple class rankings have generally fallen into the 70’s according to Scout, although Rivals thinks a little less of the incoming Owls. They’ve been occasionally sprinkling in a few three-star players who were either attracted by the urban setting, early playing time, or perhaps didn’t have the proper speed/size combination for the larger conferences.  The upgrade in overall athleticism was apparent this season, especially in the second half of the year.

On-field results.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  The MAC has had some nice seasons, especially in the early part of this decade, but Temple joined at a good time.   There may have been a point where the depleted Big East was on the same level as the MAC, but no longer.  So when you look at Al Golden suddenly getting four wins at Temple, keep in mind that they’re not playing against major conference heavyweights. 

At the same time, 4-4 in the MAC isn’t anything for Owl fans to sneeze at.

Anyway, despite being a Penn State tight end, Golden’s a defensive coach.  Let’s take a look at his defenses’ national rankings:

Year (School) Total defense / Scoring defense

2007 (Temple) 44 / 53
2006 (Temple) 117 / 118
2005 (Virginia) 60 / 40
2004 (Virginia) 18 / 17
2003 (Virginia) 67 / 26
2002 (Virginia) 100 / 50
2001 (Virginia) 93 / 74

Virginia was relatively static during Golden’s tenure, averaging eight wins per season. A few noteworthy items here. First, in years when Golden’s UVa defenses were relatively poor in terms of total defense (basically, yardage allowed per game), they were stingy with points. That’s good. Second, check out the improvement from Year One to Year Two at Temple. They were outscored 496-131 in 2006. That margin shrank to 315-197 last season. In fact, in the last seven games of 2007, they gave up 19.4 points per game. That would’ve been good for 16th, nationally.

Red Flags?  It takes a very large leap of faith to hand the Penn State program over to a guy who has two years of head coaching experience…at Temple.  There’s another way to look at it, though.  Replacing a legendary coach usually results in disappointment anyway, so why not take a chance with a highly respected young coach who was a former Penn State captain?  Take a look at this tremendous ESPN.com article about Golden and the Owls — you’ll see a guy with a lot of the qualities you’d want in a Penn State head coach.
 

Relative Compensation.  Cheap.  He’s the head coach at Temple.

Would Penn State Offer Him The Position?  It’s just a personal opinion, but I can’t see a scenario where he’s any higher than #3 in the pecking order.  If you’re a proponent of Golden as the next head coach, you have to hope that Graham Spanier decides to clean house and that his mind isn’t completely set on plucking Greg Schiano away from Rutgers.  Once Bradley and Schiano are off the board, anything is possible. Currently, it’s hard to see the search getting that far, but weird stuff happens in these situations.

Would he take the job?  In a heartbeat.  Come on, of course he would.  You have to think that the sole reason he took the Temple job was to rack up some head coaching experience, just in case.

Would the fans revolt? To a certain extent, yes, but it’s another matter of personal preference. He’d certainly cause more of an uproar than Tom Bradley or Greg Schiano, because of both his lack of head coaching experience and the fact that Penn State would likely already be on it’s 3rd choice, if not more.  Think about how antsy Michigan fans became during their search. 

Overall Attractiveness: If you’re willing to roll the dice a bit, Golden could end up being the long-term savior for Penn State. Of course, he could also be overwhelmed by the entire situation. To that end, he would be an uncharacteristically risky hire for the Penn State administration, who really can’t afford to screw this up. I think a lot of fans would be truly on board with a Golden hire, but any anger or backlash would be noticeable and understandable.

Caveat Emptor: Not ready for prime time? Yes, he’s a former captain and well-regarded, but…two years at Temple.

Better Than DeBord Tom Bradley? Probably not, in the eyes of most observers. I’d be happy with Golden, though — most of you know that already.  So many things tend to go wrong when major programs replace legendary coaches, and in that sort of scenario, I tend to base my decision on who brings the absolute highest, positive potential. To me, that’s Al Golden.  If you’re looking for a clean break from the Paterno regime, you probably have a mental checklist for the next coach:  Penn State roots, great recruiter, relatively young, offensive innovator.  Just like Bradley and Schiano, Golden fits the first three criteria but the fourth is an unknown.  In the end, I’d be satisfied with Bradley, Schiano, or Golden, although it’s still difficult to determine whether a Tom Bradley coaching staff would include any changes on the offensive side of the ball.