Ranking the 25 best head coaches in college football history
By Zach Bigalke
13. Joe Paterno
Joe Paterno will forever be a polarizing figure after the Jerry Sandusky scandal blemished his storied career at Penn State. He remains number one among head coaches in terms of wins at the I-A/FBS level, and coached in six different decades. But even if you set aside the circumstances that ended his tenure with the Nittany Lions and focus solely on his record on the field, Paterno doesn’t quite make the cut of the top dozen head coaches.
Paterno’s longevity is at once a positive mark and something which holds him back. No coach has more victories than the 409 compiled by Paterno, nor has anyone coached more games than the longtime Penn State leader.
However, the fact that the Nittany Lions won just two national championships during his tenure seriously hampers his championship rate totals. And the attempt to reach 400 wins also meant that Paterno’s winning percentage suffered through many a mediocre campaign.
More saturday blitz: 30 Greatest College Football Stadiums
Paterno’s legacy will always remain conflicted, and detaching his exploits on the field from what we now know about Sandusky will never be entirely possible. On the numbers alone, though, sitting in the middle of the Top 25 seems fair position for Paterno vis-à-vis other head coaches.