Penn’s Ray Priore and Villanova’s Mark Ferrante still find the joy in coaching in Year 38 at their schools

Penn and Villanova weren’t searching for head football coaches in the summer of 1987. The Quakers had just gone undefeated to claim the 1986 Ivy League title in their first year under Ed Zubrow. Andy Talley and the Wildcats were fresh off an 8-1 season that came only two years after the program was reinstated.

But both schools had openings for an assistant. Talley gauged the interest of Mark Ferrante, an assistant at Lafayette who played quarterback for Talley at St. Lawrence. Ferrante took his former coach up on the offer after a few phone calls.

A few miles south, Penn assistant Jim Margraff connected with Ray Priore, a former colleague of his on Albany’s coaching staff, to let him know the Quakers were hiring. Priore was two years into his coaching career and hadn’t been anywhere other than his alma mater, but he interviewed and landed the job.

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Thirty-seven years later, Ferrante and Priore are at the helm of two of the area’s most storied football programs, and neither has left.

“It’s great to have something in common with Mark in the longevity of the profession, because you really don’t see that anymore,” said Priore, who will open his 38th season at Penn and 10th as head coach on Sept. 21 at Delaware.

Priore has worn a number of hats for the Quakers, which included eight years as the associate head coach before he took the reins of the program in 2015. Ferrante, who opened his 38th season on Thursday with a 24-17 victory over Youngstown State, was named head coach in 2017. He led the team’s offensive line for 27 seasons and, like Priore, spent several years as the associate head coach prior to his promotion.

Amid an era of college football where coaches move around more frequently than ever, Ferrante and Priore have forged their paths in the traditional way. Nearing four decades with the same program, they are convinced they have it better than anyone.

“I don’t feel it’s a job,” Ferrante told The Inquirer. “I tell people all the time, ‘I don’t feel I’ve worked a day in my life.’”

Added Priore: “When it becomes a job, that’s when it’s time for me to step down.”

The similarities between Ferrante and Priore don’t stop at their longevity or their commitment to one school. Both coaches are from New York — Ferrante grew up in Syracuse, Priore in Long Island — and both got their first coaching jobs at their alma maters — Ferrante at St. Lawrence and Priore at Albany.

Even as head coaches, their paths have converged. At Penn, Priore succeeded Al Bagnoli, who led the program for 22 years and is the winningest coach in Penn history. At Villanova, Ferrante took over from Talley, who guided the Wildcats for 32 seasons and also became the winningest coach in school history.

Priore has racked up 48 wins, the same as Ferrante after the Wildcats’ season-opening victory on Thursday. Priore’s first win as a head coach in 2015 came against — you guessed it — Villanova.

The Quakers were losers of their last 14 matchups with the Wildcats entering 2015, and they hadn’t beaten Villanova in over a century. They weren’t expected to do it that time, either, with Talley’s team ranked No. 5 in the country and Penn coming off a 21-point loss to Lehigh in Priore’s debut. But the Quakers pulled off the upset, 24-13, at Villanova Stadium.

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“‘We gotta go across town and go play Villanova,’” Priore remembers thinking. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we’re gonna get beaten up.’ And then by the grace of God, we go in and we slip through and sneak a win against them.”

Ferrante, then the associate head coach at Villanova, earned some respect for Priore that day.

“When we would go in, whether it was at Franklin Field or at our place … you knew you were going to be in for a physical game,” Ferrante said. “You know when you’re lining up against Penn that you’re going to have to duke it out.”

The feeling of respect is mutual. Priore ran the defense at Penn from 1999 to 2014, a stretch during which his Quakers lost all 13 of their games against Ferrante and Villanova.

“For years as a defensive coordinator, I had gray hair because of Mark, the offense those guys have run, and the quarterbacks that they’ve had,” Priore said. “I mark it as a first-class program — classy coaches and organization from the top down.”

They have yet to square off as head coaches — Villanova and Penn have not scheduled each other since 2015 — but in the meantime, they have busied themselves with winning championships. Priore won the Ivy League in each of his first two years in charge, while Ferrante has steered the Wildcats to a pair of conference titles in the Coastal Athletic Association and the quarterfinals of the playoffs last season. Coming off a 10-3 season, the Wildcats were picked to win the CAA again this year.

Staying in one place for almost four decades has given Ferrante and Priore a unique perspective on college football. Ferrante notes that the changes during his tenure are “too numerous to even go through.”

Since both coaches were promoted, the NCAA has opened its transfer portal, removed the one-year penalty for student-athlete transfers, and implemented NIL (Name, Image and Likeness). Now student-athletes are treated like free agents in a professional sports league.

Priore is trying to get his players to see the bigger picture. Penn might not be the most lucrative NIL option for student-athletes, but he knows how the experience at an Ivy League institution can pay off.

» READ MORE: She graduated from Penn in 2023. Now, she’s the Quakers’ director of football operations.

“I would echo that our players, in the concept of NIL, happen over the next 40 to 50 years of their life,” he said. “The degree they’ll get, the opportunity they’ll get over the next 50 years of their life, may be worth more than just going to a place because they’re going to pay you X amount of dollars.”

Ferrante is emphasizing to the Wildcats that while transferring is easier than ever, it’s not the only option after one or two tough seasons.

“You don’t have to change locations to embrace change,” he said. “You have to be able to adapt to the environment that you’re involved in. It’s evolution: You either adapt or you become extinct.”

In Year 38, the competitive fire inside Ferrante and Priore has them motivated to win just as much as in 1987. Their appreciation for the communities at Villanova and Penn is also keeping them in the game.

“I love what I do, I love where I do it, and I love the people I do it with,” Ferrante said.