Cross & Crescent

Before attending college, Joe Philbin (Washington & Jefferson 1984) went to a fifth year of high school at a prep school in New England where his football coaches had a profound influence on him as an 18-year-old youngster.

When he graduated from college, a coach from the prep school, Mike Sherman, gave Philbin a shot as a graduate assistant coach at Tulane University.

College

Philbin and a few other guys from prep school decided they all wanted to go to college together, and they chose Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.

“We wanted to go to a small school and get a quality education,” says Philbin.

He played tight end for the school’s football team but admits he was a very marginal player at best. In fact, by the end of his time at W&J, he was helping the coaching staff.

Following graduation, he moved on as a graduate assistant at Tulane where he served as the tight ends coach. After a year, he began working with the offensive line. Philbin says most graduate assistants work with line coaches because there are more players there than any other position.

In 1986, Philbin took his first full-time coaching job as the offensive line coach at Worcester Tech. He spent the next 12 years working at small colleges as an offensive line coach, with stints as offensive coordinator.

“It wasn’t something I had designed and said ‘I am going to be an offensive line coach’ period,” says Philbin. “Offensive line is where I started at Tulane, so when I was looking for a full-time job, that’s where I had experience, so I gravitated there and that’s the area I moved up in.”

In 1999, Philbin became the offensive line coach for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and in 2001 his line helped the Hawkeyes lead the Big Ten in scoring, third down conversion percentage, and red zone offense.

In 2002, the line was even better; three of his linemen were named All-Big Ten and one made All-American.

Pros Come Calling

Following the successful 2002 campaign at Iowa, Philbin’s old friend Mike Sherman came calling. Sherman was the head coach for the Green Bay Packers and had an offensive line coach position open.

“I didn’t have a burning desire to coach in the NFL and I didn’t leave the college game for some big financial advantage,” Philbin says. “I really moved to Green Bay for Mike Sherman.”

Philbin has now moved into the position of offensive coordinator for the playoff-bound Packers. He credits favorable circumstances for his rapid rise in the franchise.

“I never had a master plan for moving up the organizational chart,” says Philbin. “I like to think that people recognize quality work and you do your job, and if something pops up in the organization, you have the chance of getting promoted. It just worked out.”

Philbin says coaching in Green Bay is special. “I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of this organization because it is first class. The community here is unbelievably supportive and we have some great men here.”

Coaching

Philbin has coached small colleges in Division III, some Division IAA (Harvard and Northeastern), then Iowa and now in the professional ranks. He says he has seen a little bit of everything in coaching football.

“To be frank, coaching (with the Packers) isn’t much different than coaching at the other stops I’ve made. You have 3 & 1 just like you did at Allegheny College and you have a goal-line offense just like you had at Washington & Jefferson,” says Philbin. “It’s all very similar and good football players and quality individuals are the same whether they’re professionals or amateurs. It’s not as different as many people think.”

He also disagrees with the assumption that college coaches don’t want to work in the pros because of the egos and arrogance of professional players. In fact, Philbin hasn’t found players to act that way at all.

Philbin arrives to work at 6 a.m., Monday through Thursday, and often works until 11 p.m. He explains that Friday is the one day when the staff gets to leave early in pro football.

“You try to get a little bit of sleep so you can have some enthusiasm when you are coaching,” says Philbin. “It’s rough during the season but in the NFL you have a pretty good off-season.”

Philbin says coaching is a cooperative effort. All the offensive coaches come together at the beginning of the week to work on a plan to defeat the opponent that week.

“Every person has input and every guy has their specialty,” he says. “I’m in charge of the whole thing and present it to the head coach, making sure it’s what he’s looking for.”

Philbin then presents broad information regarding the game plan to the players, and the position coaches give them details and fine-tune it. He stresses that the whole process is a combined effort of the coaches who work hard to see the team be successful.

The work has paid off this season as the Green Bay Packers have had much success, winning the NFC North and earning a first round bye in the playoffs.

“We’ve been fortunate, our guys have hung in there and competed,” says Philbin. “We don’t have a lot of superstars but a lot of guys contributing and playing well.”

Fraternity

When Philbin got to W&J, he was 600 miles away from his home and family. But he and friends from prep school quickly felt welcomed at Lambda Chi Alpha.

“Lambda Chi Alpha felt like home to us,” he says.

He still looks back appreciatively at the opportunity to experience the Initiation Ritual.

“I think the whole process of the ritual provides very vivid memories,” he says. “The process is a valuable thing for young people to go through.”

Philbin served as Fraternity educator while in college but says his greatest memory of his Fraternity days was the chapter camaraderie. He felt the chapter had guys who truly cared about each other and had great chemistry.

“I think that the camaraderie and being a part of something bigger than yourself — being a spoke on a wheel, so to speak — can be applied to business, football teams, families, etc.,” says Philbin. “I think in football and in coaching you want to build the same kind of relationships with the guys you coach, and the guys you coach with. If you do that you are going to have success.”

Philbin has kept in touch with some of his Fraternity brothers, including Jeff King (Washington & Jefferson 1984), Rick Roth (Washington & Jefferson 1984), and Justin Herideen (Washington & Jefferson 1984), who all recently traveled together to attend a Redskins-Packers game.

“We hadn’t seen each other in a while, upwards of 10 to 12 years,” says Philbin. “We had a great time hanging around and catching up.”