Former Temple coach: It's a new beginning for Owls-Penn State rivalry

If Wayne Hardin had gotten a tackle here or a completed pass there, Temple University's era of frustration over failing to defeat Penn State in football would likely have lasted much less than 71 years.

With Hardin as their head coach, the Owls lost to the Nittany Lions by one point in 1975 and 1976 and by three in 1978.

Those are part of the 29 consecutive on-field defeats Temple has suffered to its in-state rival and the 0-36-1 record against Penn State since the Owls' 14-0 win in 1941.

The Owls have another chance to break that streak when they play at Penn State at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

However, Hardin thinks Temple and its fans need to forget about the past and treat Saturday's game at Beaver Stadium as if the series were just beginning.

"There's nothing you can do about it. It's gone," Hardin, 86 and living in Oreland, Montgomery County, said of his past losses.

"If I was coaching either school, I'd say this game is the first game in the series. Whatever happened before is over. Starting right now, we're going to look at who's going to win and who's going to lose.

"I think you'll see some wins from Temple in the next 10 years. If they win four or five, God bless 'em. If Penn State wins 10 in a row, God bless 'em."

Hardin recognized that coaches Steve Addazio of Temple and Bill O'Brien of Penn State are friends who have experienced success. Addazio has two national championship rings from his days as an assistant at Florida, and O'Brien owns a Super Bowl ring, having been on the staff of the New England Patriots.

"They're two coaches that are very, very capable," he said. "Temple's got some problems with not having enough depth this year. They will be better next year.

"And Penn State's got their problems," a reference to sanctions resulting from the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal that penalized the football program, taking away 112 wins since 1998, including the last seven Lions wins over the Owls. But the Owls don't pick up those wins.

Hardin coached Temple from 1970 through 1982 and remains the school's leader with 80 wins. Although his teams went 0-8 against Penn State, his Owls gave Joe Paterno and Penn State an occasional scare.

At Franklin Field in 1975, when the teams met for the first time since 1952, Hardin was at work before the gates opened, joining then-athletic director Ernie Casale in placing thousands of pom-poms on the seats.

"They may beat us, but they're not going to out-pom-pom us," Hardin recalled telling Casale.

The Owls were partly done in that night by Rich Mauti, father of current Penn State linebacker Michael Mauti. Mauti returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the Nittany Lions' 26-25 win.

A year later, Temple scored a touchdown on the game's final play at Veterans Stadium and trailed by one. Hardin went for two points and the win, but a pass went incomplete, leaving the score 31-30 in the Lions' favor.

"I thought about it and thought about it," he said. "If we kick the conversion and tie them, that's a stepping-stone that can maybe get us a win in the future. Then I felt there's no way. I knew we had a shot at it. We took it, and it didn't work out. But at least we had a shot."

The 1978 game, also at the Vet, was dominated by punter Casey Murphy. Hardin had Murphy punt on nearly every third down, and Murphy averaged more than 48 yards on 11 punts, backing up the surprised Penn State team inside its 6-yard line three times.

The Nittany Lions won, 10-7, on a late field goal, but Paterno said after the game, "That's the best coaching job anybody's done against us ever."

Hardin said he got to know Paterno pretty well. He last saw Paterno when Penn State visited Philadelphia in 2011, "just a little chatter" that lasted about 10 minutes, he said.

Asked to comment on Paterno's fall during the Sandusky scandal, Hardin declined.

"I don't want to get into it," he said.

Hardin said Temple fans wonder every year what went wrong against Penn State. But he thinks it's a good rivalry despite the lopsided mark.

"I think you'll find Saturday is going to be the beginning. Just wash out everything that's happened in the past and go from here and see what kind of rivalry we can really build."