Who was Penn State’s best defensive coordinator ever?
- Thread starter BobPSU92
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I vote for Al Michaels. He was our first defensive coaching specialist/scout.
Thanks to him we still hold the record for best pass defense in a season (1938) and best run defense in a season (1947) in NCAA D1 history.
Thanks to him we still hold the record for best pass defense in a season (1938) and best run defense in a season (1947) in NCAA D1 history.
Bradley? Someone else?
Not ranked in any order
O'Hora
Sandusky (2 National Championships)
Bradley
Pry
What’s next? Who was Penn State’s best defensive lineman to wear #17 in the past 20 years?
Actually, we ran a modified version of the old 4-4 from '81 to '84. Not that anybody asked...
We ran a 3-4. Walker Lee Ashley was listed as a linebacker. The official listing was 3-4. Run the ABC replay of the Sugar Bowl and freeze the graphic during the opening introductions.Actually, we ran a modified version of the old 4-4 from '81 to '84. Not that anybody asked...
its hard to tell. In 1981 they changed the depth chart to list 2 DT's 2 DE's a 4 man front. But they only list 3 lbers, and list the Hero (rover/ss) as a DB (so not 4-4). Now by alignment, it does look more 3-4 ish as there is a guy on the center's nose more often than not. Check this out from the PSU vs MD game 1982, I could care less what ABC said.
82 depth chart, no MG listed (like there was in 80)
DEFENSE
LE *41STEVE SEFTER 6 6-1 232 Jr
*99Mike Garrett 6-4 228 So
*83John Luton 6-2 213 So
LT *70GREG GATTUSO 6-2 262 Jr
*63Todd Moules 6-0 256 Fr
RT *67DAVE OPFAR 6-3 239 5Y
*52Joe Hines + 6-2 256 Jr
50Jonathan Masorti 6-1 237 So
RE *37WALKERLEE ASHLEY 6+6LE 6-0 235 Sr
*88AL HARRIS 4 + 2OLB 6-2 222 Sr
*86John Walter 6-2 223 So
ILB *33DAVE PAFFENROTH 6-1 234 Sr
FRITZ *55Rodger Puz 6-2 218 Sr
*47Brad Saar 6-0 207 So
ILB *97SCOTT RADECIC 6-3 244 Jr
BACKER*84Carmen Masciantonio 6-2 216 So
OLB *98KEN KELLEY 9 + 2RE 6-2 223 5Y
WILLIE*95Rogers Alexander 6-3 194 Fr
BCB *49ROGER JACKSON 11 6-1 186 Sr
*92Mark Fruehan 6-2 206 Jr
23Alvin Cunningham 5-11173 So
FCB *39DAN BIONDI 11 5-8 170 Sr
H * 17 HARRY HAMILTON 8 5-11 191 Jr
* 43 Michael Zordich 3 5-11 203 Fr
* 46 Brian McCann 5-9 173 Sr
S * 32 MARK ROBINSON 5-11 197 Jr
* 35 Mike Suter 6-2 196 Jr
* 42 Stuart McMunn 6-1 174 5Y
Despite how ABC listed our lineup in the bowl game, all depth-charts and publications show we ran a base four man front (4-4-3) defensive alignment from 1981-1984. After the '84 season, we switched Todd Moules and Dan Morgan back on OL, and placed Mike Russo at NT with a three-man alignment. Don Graham was then an OLB.
From Ashley's Official Penn State Bio:
Defensive end, 1982, Jersey City, N.J., selected by Athlon Publications. Ashley had 52 tackles, three fumbles recovered and two fumbles caused. He had seven tackles in the 1982 National Championship win over Georgia. He played with Minnesota (1983-88, 90) and Kansas City (1989) of the National Football League. He lives in St. Paul, Minn., where he is in environmental products marketing.
Not to get all technical about it.
My high school coach played on the '47 team, I think most opponents that year netted negative yards rushing IIRC.
so where is 37 listed as a DE or a LB? The real issue is not the front, in 3-4 or 4-4, but how did they play the secondary. In other words, in the Maryland clip above, they were definitely a 4-4 team, as their outside LBers never played back on the deep hash in 2 deep.
PSU listed their guys as 4-3-4 with 4 guys in the secondary. Now the question becomes was #17 a DB or OLB? Did !7 play back on the hash if/when PSU went to 2 deep? Its hard to tell in these clips, especially playing UGA, and their running attack.
I think many people treated PSU as a 7 man front (4-3) with 4 DB's (as opposed to a team like MD or UGA that was definitely an 8 man front (4-4))
Actually, we ran a modified version of the old 4-4 from '81 to '84. Not that anybody asked...
Not germane to the topic which is best defensive coordinator! But the engineer for those defense years was Sandusky!
He's apparently convinced those years never happened. Must light his grill w/ pages from books.
Do you also believe Lawrence Taylor should be disqualified from any discussion of best linebackers of all time?
He pled guilty to child sexual abuse.
http://www.espn.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5167613
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And Joe was the guy who came up with the 4 - 4.Actually, we ran a modified version of the old 4-4 from '81 to '84. Not that anybody asked...
its hard to tell. In 1981 they changed the depth chart to list 2 DT's 2 DE's a 4 man front. But they only list 3 lbers, and list the Hero (rover/ss) as a DB (so not 4-4). Now by alignment, it does look more 3-4 ish as there is a guy on the center's nose more often than not. Check this out from the PSU vs MD game 1982, I could care less what ABC said.
82 depth chart, no MG listed (like there was in 80)
DEPTH CHART
DEFENSE
LE *41STEVE SEFTER 6 6-1 232 Jr
*99Mike Garrett 6-4 228 So
*83John Luton 6-2 213 So
LT *70GREG GATTUSO 6-2 262 Jr
*63Todd Moules 6-0 256 Fr
RT *67DAVE OPFAR 6-3 239 5Y
*52Joe Hines + 6-2 256 Jr
50Jonathan Masorti 6-1 237 So
RE *37WALKERLEE ASHLEY 6+6LE 6-0 235 Sr
*88AL HARRIS 4 + 2OLB 6-2 222 Sr
*86John Walter 6-2 223 So
ILB *33DAVE PAFFENROTH 6-1 234 Sr
FRITZ *55Rodger Puz 6-2 218 Sr
*47Brad Saar 6-0 207 So
ILB *97SCOTT RADECIC 6-3 244 Jr
BACKER*84Carmen Masciantonio 6-2 216 So
OLB *98KEN KELLEY 9 + 2RE 6-2 223 5Y
WILLIE*95Rogers Alexander 6-3 194 Fr
BCB *49ROGER JACKSON 11 6-1 186 Sr
*92Mark Fruehan 6-2 206 Jr
23Alvin Cunningham 5-11173 So
FCB *39DAN BIONDI 11 5-8 170 Sr
H * 17 HARRY HAMILTON 8 5-11 191 Jr
* 43 Michael Zordich 3 5-11 203 Fr
* 46 Brian McCann 5-9 173 Sr
S * 32 MARK ROBINSON 5-11 197 Jr
* 35 Mike Suter 6-2 196 Jr
* 42 Stuart McMunn 6-1 174 5Y
Interesting. By today's weight standards most of those linemen would be linebackers.
Bradley. PSU had some truly dominant defenses during his tenure, even during seasons where our offenses were terrible. 2005, 2008 and 2009 stand out. Bradley’s weakness, if there was one, was always the secondaries, mostly the CB’s. This was weird because he coached the DB’s.
Joe openly hated JS for his work habits, which especially sucked from 1997 to 1999 considering the amount of talent those squads had.
Joe openly hated JS for his work habits, which especially sucked from 1997 to 1999 considering the amount of talent those squads had.
We've only had eight DC's in school history (or the equivalent)--and four in the last six years--but Bradley probably wasn't the most accomplished statistically.
Although Dan Radakovich was never a DC, he is one of the most brilliant minds (IMHO) in coaching defense and is the father of our status as "linebacker U".
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We ran a base 5-2 when Joe took over. He developed and implemented the innovative 4-4-3 in 1967 and we ran it until '76. When Jerry "Assnugget" Sandusky became DC, we switched to a 5-2 and ran it until '80. We then switched back to a modified 4-4-3 in '81 and changed to a standard 3-4 from 1985-1992. When we joined the Big 10(22....) we switched to a 4-3 base. Now I need a damn nap.
