By Derek Levarse dlevarse@timesleader.com
Penn State had already replaced a coordinator and two assistant coaches this winter.
This departure was different.
As defensive tackle Antonio Shelton noted overnight on Twitter, “This one hurt. Real bad.”
Shelton and rest of Penn State’s “wild dogs” are in need of a new leader of the pack. The news that was trickling out Thursday night from mournful Penn State players was confirmed Friday. Long-time defensive line coach Sean Spencer is heading to the NFL to fill the same role with the New York Giants.
Spencer had spent his entire 24-year coaching career in the college ranks but will now be joining the staff of new Giants head coach Joe Judge. Lions247 first reported the move early Friday morning.
Regarded as one of the country’s top position coaches and a tireless recruiter known affectionately as “Coach Chaos,” Spencer was a key factor in coach James Franklin’s rise, having worked with the Nittany Lions boss for all nine seasons of his head coaching career.
The departure is the fourth on Franklin’s staff since offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne left in early December to become head coach at Old Dominion. Franklin elected to not bring back offensive line coach Matt Limegrover, and then wide receivers coach Gerad Parker took a promotion to offensive coordinator at West Virginia.
Franklin replaced them with Minnesota offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, Boston College offensive line coach Phil Trautwein and Miami receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield, respectively.
But Spencer’s shoes will be the hardest to fill. He did an admirable job of succeeding one of the few defensive coaches with a better resume, Larry Johnson, who left for Ohio State in 2014 after serving for nearly 20 years under Joe Paterno and Bill O’Brien.
Penn State’s defensive line recruiting and development remained strong under Spencer, and the production was among the best in the nation. The Lions topped 40 sacks in each of the last five seasons, a program record that only Clemson has matched from 2015-19. Twice in that stretch, Penn State led the country in sacks per game.
Spencer helped finish the development of Carl Nassib, who went from former walk-on to consensus All-American as the national sack leader in 2015, winning multiple national awards. And the unit could be back in the first round of the NFL draft this spring with fellow defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos a potential opening-night pick.
Off the field, Spencer had arguably the tightest bond on the team with his position group, which he dubbed his “wild dogs.” They appeared to get the news on Thursday night, with some, like Shelton, striking a sad tone on social media.
The Athletic reported that Spencer interviewed with the Giants on Tuesday. College resumes haven’t been an obstacle for Judge, who made a similar hire on offense by landing senior Alabama assistant Burton Burns to coach former Penn State superstar Saquon Barkley. The Giants have also recently hired former NCAA head coaches Bret Bielema and Derek Dooley.
Spencer has long been a hot commodity, and Franklin has said that other colleges had attempted to lure him away in the past. In 2018, Spencer added the titles of associate head coach and defensive run game coordinator at Penn State — sure-fire signs of a bump in salary.
“Spence had a lot of teams come court him,” defensive coordinator Brent Pry said at the time. “He does a great job in our program, and we wanted to make sure he stayed here.”
While the staff on offense has had numerous shake-ups in Franklin’s first six years at Penn State, things had been stable on defense. Spencer is the first change on that side of the ball since defensive coordinator Bob Shoop left in January 2016.
Franklin is now down to just two members of his original staff in Happy Valley from 2014 — Pry, who was promoted to replace Shoop, and cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, a former Lions player. Pry is also the only assistant remaining from Franklin’s three-year stint as head coach at Vanderbilt.
The staff overhaul comes at a time where Penn State is hoping to challenge for a Big Ten title and its first College Football Playoff berth in 2020 as the Lions look to have their best roster top-to-bottom in Franklin’s tenure.
But it hasn’t been a smooth offseason so far despite only two early departures by players to the NFL in Gross-Matos and wideout KJ Hamler.
On top of the coaching changes, Franklin and Penn State have been hit with another civil lawsuit as former safety Isaiah Humphries has alleged he was hazed by teammates and that his concerns were not taken seriously enough by Franklin. Penn State said the allegations were investigated by both local police and the university, with no criminal charges filed.
The same attorney is representing former team surgeon Scott Lynch, who filed a suit in August alleging that Franklin tried to influence treatment of players and that he was removed from his position when he complained to Penn State about it.
Penn State and Franklin have denied the claims, and the university has sought to have the suit dismissed.
Franklin is tentatively set to hold a press conference on Wednesday, his first since Dec. 28 when the Lions closed the 2019 campaign with a win in the Cotton Bowl.