How Chad Pennington came to coach Marshall-bound…

The former Jets quarterback, a two-time NFL Comeback Player of the Year after authoring his share of unlikely revivals, now has resurrected a dormant high school team in Kentucky and turned it into an unlikely winner — with his son Cole, who will follow his father to Marshall next fall, leading the way

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The rain was falling so relentlessly that it turned the football field into a muddy slip-and-slide glistening under the Friday night lights as the drops audibly pelted the aluminum bleachers.

Chad Pennington paced the sideline nervously as the fourth-quarter clock bled away with his team trailing a game he wanted to win as badly as any he’d played in during his 11 seasons in the NFL.

Sayre School trailed an undefeated Bethlehem Catholic High School team, 21-17, on Senior Night, the school’s final home game of the season. The Spartans faced a fourth-and-8 from the Bethlehem 29-yard line. It was too far out for a field-goal attempt — particularly considering the conditions — and three points would only cut the deficit to 21-20.

Pennington, the 45-year-old former Jets and Dolphins quarterback now in his fourth year as the head coach for the small private school in this Kentucky city, decided to go for it.