At Marshall, he took over the Thundering Herd football program after the Southern Airways Flight 932 plane crash that killed nearly the entire team in 1970.

[4] When Lengyel arrived at Marshall he was forced to recruit athletes from other sports (baseball and basketball) as well as allow a large number of walk-ons in order to rebuild the devastated football program.

Although the team struggled in Lengyel's first season at the helm, it managed to defeat Xavier 15–13, scoring a touchdown on the final play of the game.

On January 12, 2008, seven members of a high school basketball team from Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada and their coach's wife were killed in a highway crash when the 15-seat van they were traveling in collided with a tractor-trailer while returning from a game in Moncton in snowy conditions.

Drawing similarities between the two tragedies, on March 13, 2008, Jack Lengyel funded his own traveling expenses to New Brunswick, Canada to assist in counseling the grieving community.

In 2019, Lengyel was named to the National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame's 150th Anniversary Team of Excellence.