Jay Paterno
Episode 336
7 JULY 2025
An author, coach, and commentator with deep roots in college football, having spent over two decades coaching, including 17 years at Penn State. As a student-athlete he played football in high school, was on the 1986 national champion Penn State Nittany Lions in college and then went on to a coaching career that included Virginia, Connecticut, James Madison, and Penn State. His latest book, “BLITZED! The All-Out Pressure of College Football’s New Era,” offers a gripping exploration of the challenges facing today’s college football coaches, from NIL deals to mental health. A sought-after speaker, he regularly shares insights on leadership, resilience, and the changing landscape of athletics. His writing and commentary have made him a respected voice in sports regularly called upon by both fans and analysts for his perspective on what’s next for the game he loves.
Notable guest quotes:
“Our home parish was Our Lady of Victory, which, Phil Knight once joked to my dad, ‘What did they call it before you got there’?”
“We were altar boys, went to Our Lady of Victory Catholic school all the way through sixth grade. There was no Catholic high school in our town at that time, so we went as long as we could, went to CCD all the way through twelfth grade.”
“My mom’s very, very devout. If you want to find her, she’s at four o’clock Mass every Saturday at the campus ministry, which she has given so much of her life to, and really all of us have been involved as well. So, you’d be hard pressed to find an area of our lives that was not touched by the faith that we were raised in.”
“The reason why I stayed in college coaching, not pro – and why my dad as well – in college coaching… you have the ability to impact people beyond wins and losses, beyond just an entertainment value for fans. You have an ability to take young people that come in as 17- or 18-year-olds that think they know everything and then quickly find that they don’t know everything and then watch them develop as human beings.”
“He was in a coma for a week, at one point was pretty much brain dead, and the doctors flat out told my parents, ‘There’s nothing else we can do. It’s in God’s hands,’ and he woke up on my birthday.”
“Immediately there’s this perception of an unfair advantage. But my dad, from the time I played and then when I coached, he made things harder for me than it was for other people.”
“My mom and dad would always say, ‘God doesn’t give you more than He thinks you can handle.’ And I occasionally would say, ‘Well God may have a much higher opinion of me than I have of myself because this last thing’s a doozy.”
“Now you have players that are coming into college, and their families have expectations of the kind of money they can get. So now it’s, ‘Well you’re at this school, but you’re not playing like maybe you should be. Let’s go to another school because they’re gonna offer you more money and you can raise your profile’.”
“Knowing that Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine was there and having heard that story as a kid and … the idea that you could go to a place that was so important in your faith and actually be on the ground and see the shrine and the shroud that’s there… we went and it was a very moving experience.”
“I read the Bible, and I do readings almost on a daily basis because I find it’s very sustaining.”
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