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From BWI Main Page: Campbell working on staff retention...???

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KC-KS-Lion

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I wonder who, if any beyond Terry Smith, Campbell views as worthy to remain at PSU\, as it seems like the retention has been more on the former ISU staff, which I understand somewhat.

I was hoping for others that have since gone elsewhere, but of the remaining game day coaches, would like to have Connor (LB) and Pointdexter (DB) be seriously considered if for nothing else continuity of traditional and recent strengths.

I realize the LB corp is thin (and gotten thinner from Knowles' decresed focus on LBs) and the DB performance has gone backwards, but to me it seemed to be as deep in quality in some years, with consistent stars especially at safety...I'm hoping some continuity might bring a few DB de-commits back. It should emphasized the defensive staff has been under 3 different coordinators in the last 3 years.
 
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PSU4U

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KC-KS-Lion said:
I wonder who, if any beyond Terry Smith, Campbell views as worthy to remain at PSU\, as it seems like the retention has been more on the former ISU staff, which I understand somewhat.

I was hoping for others that have since gone elsewhere, but of the remaining game day coaches, would like to have Connor (LB) and Pointdexter (DB) be seriously considered if for nothing else continuity of traditional and recent strengths.

I realize the LB corp is thin (and gotten thinner from Knowles' decresed focus on LBs) and the DB performance has gone backwards, but to me it seemed to be as deep in quality in some years, with consistent stars especially at safety...I'm hoping some continuity might bring a few DB de-commits back. It should emphasized the defensive staff has been under 3 different coordinators in the last 3 years.
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Conner McSorley Barnes back.
 
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Nittering Nabob

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PSU4U said:
Conner McSorley Barnes back.
Click to expand...
A bit surprised about McSorley as I thought he would have followed Franklin. I'm undecided about Barnes. PSU's DL was one of the worst performing units on the team.....rarely got to the opposing QB (except against cupcakes) and was woeful against the run without extra help from the DB's.
 
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PSU4U

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Nittering Nabob said:
A bit surprised about McSorley as I thought he would have followed Franklin. I'm undecided about Barnes. PSU's DL was one of the worst performing units on the team.....rarely got to the opposing QB (except against cupcakes) and was woeful against the run without extra help from the DB's.
Click to expand...
McSorley is a PS guy through and through.
 
Itraindogs

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Nittering Nabob said:
A bit surprised about McSorley as I thought he would have followed Franklin. I'm undecided about Barnes. PSU's DL was one of the worst performing units on the team.....rarely got to the opposeing QB (except against cupcakes) and was woeful against the run without extra help from the DB's.
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I would not be too harsh on Barnes, as much of this could be attributed to Knowles' scheme
 
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Nittering Nabob

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Itraindogs said:
I would not be too harsh on Barnes, as much of this could be attributed to Knowles' scheme
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I'm only being harsh because as a player he was tall and lean and that is the type of players he preferentially recruited. Like Franklin, he emphasized speed over mass along the DL.
 
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RochLion

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Corner Room Breakfast said:
Agree, the only thing wrong with the d line were big bodies in the middle, not Barns fault.
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Agreed. You're not going to survive Big 10 with 285 pound def tackles. Still conflicted over Trautwein. Seemed like he had the OLine working well, and then not. Then again I felt the same about Danny O'Brien.
 
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RochLion said:
Agreed. You're not going to survive Big 10 with 285 pound def tackles. Still conflicted over Trautwein. Seemed like he had the OLine working well, and then not. Then again I felt the same about Danny O'Brien.
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Regarding Trautwein, in the leaked audio, Kraft talked about how they missed former OL assistant Frank Leonard, and you can hear the players overwhelmingly agree that it was a big loss when he left. So maybe just a coincidence or not that OL play went south this year, at least until Kaytron started getting the bulk of the carries.
 
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PSUFTG

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There are only a handful of coaching "holdovers" still in limbo - out of the huge Coaching/Analyst/Admin bureaucracy:
A lot left with Franklin, obviously :) And may be a few more departures to come. Many of the departures to date have been back-filled by Campbell. Some have not. Maybe some new positions will be created - since PSU Athletics is flush with cash 🤣
Of the "coaches", I expect Poindexter and Lustig will have other job opportunities (maybe even still room on CJF's new staff?) and some will be leaving soon.

Members of "10 Man" Coaching Staff:
Lustig (ST)
Barnes (DL)
Hagans (WR) (I think everyone figures his remaining time at PSU is very limited)
Poindexter (DB)

The "assistant assistants" (not sure of a better term) those are similar to the positions that the NFL used to refer to as the "coffee fetchers"- generally similar to "coaching interns", new to the gig, and in "watch and learn" mode. That is where most of those guys fit in - and are rather vagabond positions, with some exceptions.

"Assistant" Assistants. These are all relatively newly created positions, once the NCAA told the programs: "F it, hire as many damn "coaches" as you want":
Dan Connor (LB)
Mark Dupois (WR)
Greg Gattuso (DL)
Jordan Lucas (DB)
Andrew Jackson (DL)
Trace McSorley (QB)
Charles Walker (RB)

The "analysts" are another newly created industry - catalyzed, once again, by the NCAA saying "F it. Hire as many people as you want".
What they do is rather nebulous and varies a lot from individual to individual. Typically, their ranks are filled with folks who have some personal connection to the Head Coach or Staff members. As the creation of this new industry matures, we may see "Analyst" become more of a career track, as opposed to just a place for athletic departments to spend money - as it was when first created.

"Analyst" Types (What does each actually do? Who knows?)
Most have been brought in in last couple years - many in the last several months - as new staff positions have been created and number of positions exploded:
Will Reimann
Shane Eachus
James Urban
David Parker
Brent Zdebski
Bill Quiesert
Allen Tucker

Primarily Administrative:
Lower Level Administrative Types:
Rashad Rich (Recruiting Operations)
Alan Zemaitis (Recruiting Operations)
Naz Oliver (Recruiting Operations)
Dan Kabala
Jordan Hill
Kenny Sanders
Bob Palko
Lauren Geppert
DJ Bryant
Ben Kerr
Gabbie Mazzie



Yes, it should surprise no one:
Penn State spent 8 figures (Was it $30-40 million? I don't recall exactly OTTOMH) to create new office space for "Football Admins" a couple years back. When you look at the full coaching/admin roster (the above is just a list of still-remaining holdovers), it is easy to see why.
 
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PSUFTG

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Zone-Blitz said:
Regarding Trautwein, in the leaked audio, Kraft talked about how they missed former OL assistant Bill Leonard, and you can hear the players overwhelmingly agree that it was a big loss when he left. So maybe just a coincidence or not that OL play went south this year, at least until Kaytron started getting the bulk of the carries.
Click to expand...
Based on objective review of how their position groups performed since they took over, it would be difficult to support keeping any of the remaining coaching holdovers - with the possible exception of Lustig. (Maybe I missed one, but none come to mind. Possibly Poindexter?)

Obviously, some coaches do more than "coach their position", and that could add context to the decisions - but if they don't excel as actual "coaches", would Campbell want to keep them for other reasons?
 
Connorpozlee

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PSUFTG said:
There are only a handful of coaching "holdovers" still in limbo - out of the huge Coaching/Analyst/Admin bureaucracy:
A lot left with Franklin, obviously :) And may be a few more departures to come. Many of the departures to date have been back-filled by Campbell. Some have not. Maybe some new positions will be created - since PSU Athletics is flush with cash 🤣
Of the "coaches", I expect Poindexter and Lustig will have other job opportunities (maybe even still room on CJF's new staff?) and some will be leaving soon.

Members of "10 Man" Coaching Staff:
Lustig (ST)
Barnes (DL)
Hagans (WR) (I think everyone figures his remaining time at PSU is very limited)
Poindexter (DB)

The "assistant assistants" (not sure of a better term) those are similar to the positions that the NFL used to refer to as the "coffee fetchers"- generally similar to "coaching interns", new to the gig, and in "watch and learn" mode. That is where most of those guys fit in - and are rather vagabond positions, with some exceptions.

"Assistant" Assistants. These are all relatively newly created positions, once the NCAA told the programs: "F it, hire as many damn "coaches" as you want":
Dan Connor (LB)
Mark Dupois (WR)
Greg Gattuso (DL)
Jordan Lucas (DB)
Andrew Jackson (DL)
Trace McSorley (QB)
Charles Walker (RB)

The "analysts" are another newly created industry - catalyzed, once again, by the NCAA saying "F it. Hire as many people as you want".
What they do is rather nebulous and varies a lot from individual to individual. Typically, their ranks are filled with folks who have some personal connection to the Head Coach or Staff members. As the creation of this new industry matures, we may see "Analyst" become more of a career track, as opposed to just a place for athletic departments to spend money - as it was when first created.

"Analyst" Types (What does each actually do? Who knows?)
Most have been brought in in last couple years - many in the last several months - as new staff positions have been created and number of positions exploded:
Will Reimann
Shane Eachus
James Urban
David Parker
Brent Zdebski
Bill Quiesert
Allen Tucker

Primarily Administrative:
Lower Level Administrative Types:
Rashad Rich (Recruiting Operations)
Alan Zemaitis (Recruiting Operations)
Naz Oliver (Recruiting Operations)
Dan Kabala
Jordan Hill
Kenny Sanders
Bob Palko
Lauren Geppert
DJ Bryant
Ben Kerr
Gabbie Mazzie



Yes, it should surprise no one:
Penn State spent 8 figures (Was it $30-40 million? I don't recall exactly OTTOMH) to create new office space for "Football Admins" a couple years back. When you look at the full coaching/admin roster (the above is just a list of still-remaining holdovers), it is easy to see why.
Click to expand...
I thought Connor was promoted the actual LB coach last year?
 
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PSUFTG

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Connorpozlee said:
I thought Connor was promoted the actual LB coach last year?
Click to expand...
Cliff's Notes:
A) They can call them whatever they want. No one much cares about that anymore.
B) I would conjecture that as far as actual "coaching" is concerned, Connor has been the de-facto Linebacker coach - especially since Manny D left.

More thorough answer:
Last year the NCAA modified a lot of the "rules" regarding coaches, assistant coaches, analyst, etc (most of which, many schools ignored with impunity for years anyway).
Prior to that, only the "Head Coach +10" could be involved in anything one would describe as "coaching" (Connor, and all those other folks, is not one of the "Head Coach +10")

As it relates to coaches who are more than the "Head Coach +10" (Connor and Obrien and others were not part of the HC +10), the biggest change in those NCAA rules was that prohibitions against actual "coaching" of players was lifted - essentially shredded (after being ignored by most schools anyway :) ).
So guys like Connor - and all the rest - could be with the players on practice field, and anywhere else, actually "coaching" them - in the traditional sense (without violating any rule).

There were some aspects that the NCAA kept in place - such as only the "Head Coach +10" could do off-campus recruiting and what not (not sure if teams actually follow that or not - maybe the NCAA has even changed THAT in the last few months - IDK)

Anyway:
I expect that all those "assistant assistants" - and "quality control" guys and what not, no one cares what they call them - like Connor - many take on different levels of coaching responsibility. Among the "10", Lustig was listed as having Linebacker responsibilities (and Knowles also had some past experience there)..... but if Connor was as involved, or MORE involved, as anyone else in the actual "coaching", I would not be surprised - nor would it be an NCAA violation anymore.
My guess (and I would be fairly confident in the guess) would be that especially after Manny D left, Connor was the "most involved" in the actual traditional coaching role among the linebackers - even though he was still not part of the "HC +10", and would have been limited in recruiting and what not.

Others in that long list of "Assistants" "Quality Control" "Analysts" etc lists? Some, I would expect do significant amounts of coaching.... some do none of that at all.
 
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Catch1lion

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Zone-Blitz said:
Regarding Trautwein, in the leaked audio, Kraft talked about how they missed former OL assistant Bill Leonard, and you can hear the players overwhelmingly agree that it was a big loss when he left. So maybe just a coincidence or not that OL play went south this year, at least until Kaytron started getting the bulk of the carries.
Click to expand...
Landon T recently commented that Leonard was so key and most people don't know that fact.
 
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s1uggo72

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RochLion said:
Agreed. You're not going to survive Big 10 with 285 pound def tackles. Still conflicted over Trautwein. Seemed like he had the OLine working well, and then not. Then again I felt the same about Danny O'Brien.
Click to expand...
You shouldn’t be. He’s Florida problem now
 
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LB99

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Connorpozlee said:
Thanks
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Connor started working his way up the coaching ladder as a LB coach at West Chester and DC at Widener, as well as, a HS HC before coming to Penn State as a defensive analyst then LB coach. His coaching experience at the lower levels came with very high reviews. I think Connor will be a DC somewhere in the not to distant future
 
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creamery freak

creamery freak

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LB99 said:
Connor started working his way up the coaching ladder as a LB coach at West Chester and DC at Widener, as well as, a HS HC before coming to Penn State as a defensive analyst then LB coach. His coaching experience at the lower levels came with very high reviews. I think Connor will be a DC somewhere in the not to distant future
Click to expand...
LB99 said:
Connor started working his way up the coaching ladder as a LB coach at West Chester and DC at Widener, as well as, a HS HC before coming to Penn State as a defensive analyst then LB coach. His coaching experience at the lower levels came with very high reviews. I think Connor will be a DC somewhere in the not to distant future
Click to expand...
I always thought Sean Lee would end up as a LB coach or D Coordinator.
 
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