Yeah, he was evidently talking about bringing back Joe Paterno’s tradition of winning.
But I can understand why such a simple locution would mystify those for whom analogy, synecdoche, or any other complex but common figure of speech is terra incognita.
Busted out the thesaurus to play mocking games I see...
Your skill at the English language would be put to better use coaching your candidate on it’s proper use rather than trying to pretend defending him is an act of sophistication.