Penn State football brought another former player back into the program in May when it announced that letterman, Super Bowl champion, and Steel-High alum Jordan Hill would be its new Director of Life Skills. Hill left a head coaching job at Trinity High School in Camp Hill, Pa., to join James Franklin’s staff. His position is not a new one, the 11th-year leader of the Lions said Thursday. Instead, it appears that Hill replaces former Director of Player Development & Community Relations Will Flaherty with a different title. Flaherty is no longer listed in the program’s online directory. Why was Hill the right man for this job?
“Jordan is a total class act,” Franklin said. “As I’ve gotten to know him as a letterman, as I got to know him as a high school coach, as a former NFL player who won a Super Bowl with a chance to win two Super Bowls, a guy who wasn’t highly recruited, was a late take, and had a really good career here. He just has a really good way about him. Everybody I’ve talked to since I arrived at Penn State just raves about the guy. And, as I got to know him, I felt the same way. So we had an opportunity to get him in the building.”
It’s been a long time coming. NCAA rules prohibit schools from recruiting high schools that a non-position coach came from for a handful of years unless a waiver is granted. It’s unclear if one was in this case. But either way, the long-awaited anticipated match finally made sense for both sides.
“We actually tried to do it a few years earlier,” Franklin said. “At the time, it didn’t make sense for his family. And this timed up better.”
Penn State continues to bring lettermen back
A total of 16 former Penn State football players now have a role within either Franklin’s program or Penn State Athletics in general. The full list is below. What’s the value of that in the mind of the Lions’ head coach?
“Whether it’s an actual full time on the field coach, whether it’s someone in recruiting, whether it’s somebody in player development, having people within the building that have walked in their footsteps, institutional knowledge, community knowledge, football at Penn State what it’s like, and then some of those guys also have NFL experience, which gives them instant credibility,” Franklin said. “I think it has been really valuable. “I think Alan Zemaitis is a great example. Ty Howel is a great example. Dan Connor is a great example. All three of them are in different kinds of areas, but have done a phenomenal job. And then I think, like anything else, when Alan Zemaitis comes here and does a phenomenal job, and then he vouches for somebody that he played with or knows, and we have a position open, then it makes a ton of sense to sit down with those people and see if they do make sense. And then some of them, we’ve identified over the last couple of years and were just waiting for the right time to get them in, or NCAA rules, those types of things.
“So it’s been awesome. And then I think you guys know we’ve worked really hard at closing that gap and continue to build those relationships with the players that played here before. Was a real challenge when we first got here. I think we’re at a really good place now. But you can always get better, and I think they help with that, too.”
Who are the 16 Lions football lettermen working for either the program or the university?
Here is the list:
(Defensive Line), (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends)
Terry Smith (Associate Head Coach/Defensive Recruiting Coordinator/Cornerbacks)
Torrence Brown (Defensive Graduate Assistant), Jordan Lucas (Defensive Graduate Assistant)
Dan Connor (Defensive Analyst)
Andrew Nelson (Director of Performance Science)
Tyrone Smith (Assistant Director of Athletic Performance)
Alan Zemaitis (Recruiting Coordinator)
Todd Kulka (Director Of Football Academic Services)
Wally Richardson (Director of the Football Letterman’s Club)
Omar Easy (Assistant AD for the Brand Academy)
Michael Mauti (Associate Director of Development)
Bobby White (Assistant AD for Premium Seating)
Dan Vasey (Assistant Director of High Performance).
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The post Why did Penn State hire Jordan Hill as its Director of Life Skills? appeared first on On3.