Cowher to Penn State-Not just a Rumor.

Need some toughness in Central PA call Joe Pa.  Need some grit call Joe Pa. Need a guy who knows college football, call Joe Pa.  Need a 71 year old guy trying to enforce the cutting of binge drinking and football player rage disorder. Um, well he has got the 71 year old part.

Look Joe Paterno has been tremendous over the years at Penn State, but his time up. Penn State has officially turned into,   The Program a 1993 film starring James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Epps, Craig Sheffer, Kristy Swanson, Daniel Lee, and Joey Lauren Adams.

The film the season of the fictional college football team, the ESU Timberwolves as they deal with the pressure to make a bowl game, drug and alcohol abuse, and overall college life. It follows the trials of Coach Sam Winters (Caan), the Heisman Trophy candidate Joe Kane (Sheffer), the freshman running back Darnell Jefferson (Epps), their girlfriends (Berry & Swanson), and other team members.

Change is needed and if Penn State can sustain a brutal three game gauntlet of Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan, they may end up in the Bowl Championship game. This would be the perfect time for Joe Paterno to retire. I seriously he has had to coach from the press box the last couple of weeks.

So here are the candidates for this job in my opinion ranked in order that would best fit the Happy Valley atmosphere and get the program to be a perennial powerhouse, not once ever 5 years.

1.      Bill Cowher-

Cowher began his coaching career in 1985 at age 28 under Marty Schottenheimer with the Cleveland Browns. He was the Browns' special teams coach in 1985-86 and secondary coach in 1987-88 before following Schottenheimer to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1989 as defensive coordinator.

He became the fifteenth head coach in Steelers history when he replaced Chuck Noll on January 21, 1992 – but only the second head coach since the NFL merger in 1970. Under Cowher, the Steelers showed an immediate improvement from the disappointing 7-9 season the year before, going 11-5 and earning home field advantage in the AFC after the Steelers had missed the playoffs six times out of the previous seven years. In 1995, at age 38, he became the youngest coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl. Cowher is only the second coach in NFL history to lead his team to the playoffs in each of his first six seasons as head coach, joining Pro Football Hall of Fame member Paul Brown.

In Cowher’s 15 seasons, the Steelers captured eight division titles, earned ten postseason playoff berths, played in 21 playoff games, advanced to six AFC Championship games and made two Super Bowl appearances. He is one of only six coaches in NFL history to claim at least seven division titles.

It has become an article of faith among NFL pundits that the Steelers do not have a bad team two years in a row – they have never lost 10 or more games in consecutive years since the 1970 NFL merger. At the conclusion of the 2005 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had the best record of any team in the National Football League since Cowher was hired as head coach.

On February 5, 2006, Cowher's Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10, giving Cowher his first Super Bowl ring.

Per Wikipedia

2.      Greg Schiano

Greg Schiano is a Penn State man. In 1990, he joined the Penn State staff as graduate assistant, and later served as the defensive backfield coach there from 1991-95. It has been said that Schiano views Paterno as a mentor and idolizes him and the Penn State football program.

Schiano began his coaching career in 1988 as an assistant coach at Ramapo High School. In 1989, he served as a graduate assistant at Rutgers. In 1990, he took the same position at Penn State, and later served as the defensive backfield coach there from 1991 until 1995.

From 1996 to 1998, Schiano was an assistant coach in the NFL with the Chicago Bears. For his first two seasons there, he was a defensive assistant, and then was promoted in his third and final season with the Bears to defensive backfield coach.

He served as defensive coordinator for the University of Miami from 1999 to 2000. In 1999, UM finished the year ranked 12th in the NCAA's Division I-A in points allowed per game (17.2), and in 2000 moved up to 5th (15.5 points allowed per game). His brief 18 month stint at Miami and his roots in New Jersey, made him a candidate for his next position as Rutgers head coach.

On December 1, 2000, Schiano accepted the head coaching position at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. In 2001, his first season as head coach, the Scarlet Knights posted a 2-9 record (0-7 in the Big East), followed by a 1-11 mark (0-7 Big East) in 2002. This was followed by a 5-7 record (2-5 Big East) in 2003. In 2004, Schiano took on defensive coordinator responsibilities as well, and the team finished 4-7 (1-5 Big East). Although Schiano was producing solid recruiting classes, especially by Rutgers standards, his 3-24 record in conference games and 4-17 record in road games in those first four years were a cause for concern for some fans.

But things began to turn around for the program during the 2005 season. That year, the team finished with a 7-4 record, including a 4-3 conference record, and a nationally-televised 37-29 upset win over Pittsburgh and their coach Dave Wannstedt, a long-time friend of Schiano's who hired him while coaching Chicago. At season's end, Schiano and the Scarlet Knights accepted a bid to play in the Insight Bowl against Arizona State University, their first bowl game appearance since the 1978 Garden State Bowl. (Coincidentally, that game was also against Arizona State, and a then-12-year-old Schiano was among the attendees.) During preparations for the Insight Bowl, Schiano signed a new contract, extending his contract through the 2012 season.

In the 2006 season, Schiano's Scarlet Knights achieved their first Top 25 ranking since 1976. Following week four of the college football season, Rutgers with a record of 4-0 was ranked #23 in the Associated Press and Coaches Polls. The team was ranked as high as #6 in the country (BCS standings) with a 9-0 record after a historic win against the Louisville Cardinals, beating them 28-25 in Piscataway. Throughout the season, coach Schiano and Rutgers were featured prominently in both the local and national media, and Schiano's motivational phrase " keep choppin'" became part of the lexicon of college football. Rutgers finished the season with a 10-2 record, the first time they had won ten games since 1976. Following the season, Schiano and the Scarlet Knights accepted an invitation to play Kansas State in the inaugural Texas Bowl, where they would go on to defeat Kansas State 37-10, capturing their first ever bowl win. For his work in the 2006 season, Coach Schiano was awarded several Coach of the Year honors, including the Home Depot Coach of the Year award and the inaugural Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award.

Per Wikipedia 

3.      Tom Bradley

An assistant football coach at Penn State University in State College.  A graduate of Penn State and former player for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, Bradley has been an assistant to coach Joe Paterno since 1979. His title on the Penn State coaching staff is " In charge of defense/cornerbacks" . This is roughly equivalent to being the defensive coordinator with additional responsibility of being the position coach for the cornerbacks. Bradley is widely rumored to be the eventual successor to Paterno who has been the head coach at Penn State since 1966.

In addition to his role with the defense at Penn State, Bradley has been a highly successful recruiter for the Nittany Lions. Coach Bradley served as the lead recruiter for Nittany Lions such as Shane Conlan, Alan Zemaitis, and Justin King. Bradley has coached many All-American and all Big Ten standouts including, LaVar Arrington, Paul Posluszny, and David Macklin.