Christopher Babos
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Since the announcement of the return of the Arena Football League to the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, information has been relatively spare to come by for fans. Most of the news has come directly from the team’s new Twitter/X account (@phillysoulfb). With the team starting anew, one of the most critical decisions the new management must get correct is the first person that they selected to lead the franchise as their first head coach. In early November, the team announced that they had their man for the job in Patrick Pimmel.
Coach P brings with him over three decades worth professional coach experience to the City of Brotherly Love. Pimmel’s specialty is on the offensive side of the ball with the last decade of experience mostly coming from that side of the gridiron. In their inaugural season of 2022, he was able to assist the Indoor Football League’s Las Vegas Knight Hawks establish their run game as the Run Game Coordinator. The Knight Hawks averaged 36.6 yards per game which ranked in the bottom 5 of the very pass-happy arena league. Unfortunately for Las Vegas, the win total aligned with that of a typical expansion team at 6-10 for the campaign.
Pimmel would then have the chance to establish an entire offensive gameplan of his own in 2023 as he was named Offensive Coordinator of the IFL’s Duke City Gladiators. Last season, Duke City averaged 43 points per game in a 5-10 season. This placed the Gladiators 10th out of the 14-team league. Despite still putting up their average number of points per game, Duke City lost five of their final six games in a spiraling end to their season.
Perhaps the most noteworthy moment of Coach P’s coaching career came many moons ago in 2012. Pimmel was the head coach for the IFL’s Allen Wranglers when the team brought in former All-NFL wide receiver Terrill Owens after he was unable to secure an NFL contract following an ACL injury. The 38-year-old Owens electrified with 3 touchdowns in his first game for the Wranglers. Allen started the season hot at 5-1 but back-to-back losses cost Pat Pimmel his job at the end of April, just 8 games into the season Owens played several home games in 2012 to showcase his talents in Texas, but he refused to play in road matchups elsewhere without special accommodation in place. T.O. was ultimately released with three games remaining in the season as the team cited personality and commitment issues from the former NFL megastar.
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