As he sat at a dais inside the Pegula Ice Arena media room earlier this month, Penn State coach James Franklin had at least three hires to make following the departure of running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider to Notre Dame while analyst Robb Smith became the co-defensive coordinator with play calling responsibilities at Rutgers and recruiting coordinator Khalil Ahmad became the associate general manager at Temple . He moved quickly to replace Seider with former Owls head coach Stan Drayton . But, a pair of new job postings are a reminder that the work is not yet complete to fill out the program’s full staff before the 2025 season.
The Nittany Lions currently seek both an assistant recruiting coordinator for personnel and recruiting and at least one new analyst. That number is likely to grow to at least two. That’s because Vic Hall left for a job on Smith’s defense staff with the Scarlet Knights . As for the recruiting department job, it is the one Ahmad vacated. Whoever replaces him will be tasked with all sorts of responsibilities. Those include but are not limited to prospect evaluation, hosting on-campus visits, film review, electronic recruiting communication, and more.
“Khalil did a really good job for us as well, so we wish him well, but that creates a ton of work as well,” Franklin said earlier this month . “The interview process, being as thorough as we possibly can with that, while also understanding in today’s college football, the timing of it is really important as well. There’s a lot of uneasiness and uncertainty from our current roster, as well as recruits. So we want to be sensitive to that as well. But not to the point where we don’t do a great job and we’re not thorough with our process.”
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As for the analyst position, Penn State has so far added two defensive line experts. Former Albany head coach and Lions letterman Greg Gattuso and former PSU grad assistant and multi-year West Virginia assistant Andrew Jackson are both now on staff. It has also brought Shane Eachus and Brent Zdebski into the fold. Both are tied to new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Thus, Franklin may decide to target helpers on offense to fill his latest openings. Smith, for example, is a long-time defensive coordinator. But, he worked with the offense to lend his perspective from the other side of the ball to Andy Kotelnicki and co.
Penn State kicks off winter workouts this week. It tarts spring practice in roughly a month. And, it opens the 2025 season opposite Nevada on Aug. 30.
