Former Penn football coach Al Bagnoli in talks with Columbia

Long-time Penn football coach Al Bagnoli retired at the end of the 2014 season, ending his 23-year tenure as the winningest coach in Penn history.

But he may not be done just yet.

Bagnoli, 62, had spoken about moving into a role within the Penn Athletics administration after retirement, but, according to Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer, he is in talks to take over as Columbia’s head coach. Columbia’s program is going through a rough stretch, losing its last 21 straight games dating back to the 2012 season.

Columbia’s program came under fire for its struggles outside of wins and losses over the last few seasons. The Lions received negative national attention in 2013 after it was publically revealed that many of the team’s athletes had posted racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic tweets. After the 2014 season, embattled coach Pete Mangurian resigned shortly after reports said he had physically abuse players and forced players to play with concussions.

Bagnoli, on the other hand, has seen success wherever he has been in his career. In his 33 years as a coach at Union and Penn, he had only two losing season, coming with his 2013 and 2014 squads. The long-time Penn coach dominated Columbia, only losing to the Lions twice during his time with the Red and Blue while winning his last 18 meetings with the Light Blue.

The current talks with Columbia would come as a significant surprise to many after Bagnoli announced he would retire following the 2014 season. Each of the other Ivy League schools honored the Penn coach during road games while his players talked about sending him out on top.

Penn won his last game against Cornell in November after which long-time assistant coach Ray Priore took over Bagnoli’s job.

Here’s the original report from the Inquirer.

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