At his weekly meeting with the media yesterday on the Temple campus, Owls football coach Al Golden recounted a 1987 sit-down he and a few other incoming freshmen had with Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
"He lied to us," Golden said with a laugh. "He told us we were going to be his last recruiting class."
Now, 20 years later, Paterno is in his 42d year at Penn State, and he will bring his squad to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday to face Golden and his Owls in a nonleague game.
Last week, Temple put standing-room-only tickets on sale for the 37th meeting of teams that got together annually in another era. The series has fallen short of a rivalry, however, as Penn State has put together a 32-3-1 advantage. The Owls haven't defeated the Nittany Lions since 1941.
Paterno, whose team will take the field against Temple with a 7-3 record, is 23-0 against the Owls, and his 370 career wins place him second among Division I coaches all time, two behind Florida State's Bobby Bowden.
Golden, who took on the massive job of rebuilding a Temple program that hadn't had a winning season since 1990, is in his second season with the Owls and has a 4-17 record. Temple is 3-6 after having its three-game winning streak snapped at Ohio last week.
"How many wins am I behind him?" said Golden. "At this rate, I'm going to have to live to be 315 to catch him."
Coming out of high school at Red Bank Catholic (N.J.), Golden became part of a Penn State recruiting class that produced 11 NFL draft choices. A tight end, Golden also considered Tennessee, Virginia, Boston College, Nebraska and West Virginia.
As a Nittany Lion, Golden was a two-year starter. His late touchdown reception as a junior tied the game when Penn State knocked off top-ranked Notre Dame, 24-21, in South Bend. And he was a team captain as a senior in 1991 and helped the Nittany Lions to an 11-2 record that left them third in the nation.
"I think I have the same intensity now, and it's carried over to other aspects of my life," Golden said. "I'm waiting for the day when we have a team at Temple that matches my intensity."
Golden started out as the offensive coordinator at Red Bank Catholic in 1993 before working with the linebackers at Boston College from 1997 to 1999. In 2001, at 31, Golden became the youngest defensive coordinator in the nation when Al Groh brought him on board at Virginia.
Golden spent five seasons in that position and then accepted the top job at Temple.
