UCLA Football Preview: Penn State Coaching Staff is Worth Every Penny
Plus, a look at the Nittany Lions Special Teams.
James Franklin is now in his twelfth season at the helm of the Penn State Nittany Lions, and he has led the team to 37 wins since 2022. To give you a better idea of how impressive that is, UCLA has only won 40 games since the start of the Chip Kelly era in 2018.
What really makes this even more incredible is that Franklin has accomplished this despite having a revolving door of coordinators on his coaching staff. Last season, Franklin added offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Kotelnicki certainly delivered results last year. He improved Penn State’s offense from 53rd in the nation in 2023 to 26th in the country last year. He upgraded the Nittany Lions from 399 offensive yards per game to 430 yards per game last season.
At the same time, Penn State’s offense is currently down to 397 offensive yards per game so far this year, at least until they come to the Rose Bowl and put up some video game stats this weekend.
This year’s new coordinator is defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. Knowles joined Franklin’s staff this year after spending the past three seasons as Ryan Day’s defensive coordinator at Ohio State.
Following last year’s appearance in the College Football Playoff, which saw Penn State make it to the CFP Semifinal in the Orange Bowl, defensive coordinator Tom Allen chose to leave Happy Valley for Death Valley when he joined Dabo Sweeney’s staff at Clemson. The move saw Allen earn a $300K raise. He was scheduled to make $1.6 million this year at Penn State, but will make $1.9 million with the Tigers.
So, Franklin went out and hired one of the best defensive coordinators in college football. The Buckeye defense was ranked #1 in yards allowed, #1 in scoring defense, and #1 in red zone defense. That helped Knowles become the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football, going from a $2.2 million paycheck last season to $3.1 million with the Nittany Lions this year.
Digest that for a moment. Penn State, whose football program basically bottomed out in 2011 when they fired the legendary Joe Paterno amidst the Sandusky scandal, was not only four points away from playing for the national championship last season, but they also hired away the defensive coordinator for last season’s national champs for about what UCLA is paying now-former head coach DeShaun Foster this season. Let’s call that reason #94 why Martin Jarmond needs to resign.
For what it’s worth, Franklin is earning $8.5 million this season. And he’s worth every penny. For the sake of comparison, interim head football coach Tim Skipper earned about $461K as the interim head coach at Fresno State last season. At this time, his salary to be UCLA’s interim head coach has not been published. A public record request has been submitted to UCLA and we will publish that information when it becomes available.
Special Teams
Redshirt sophomore Ryan Barker took over the kicking duties for the Nittany Lions last year for the UCLA game. Barker scored nine points in that game a year ago with two field goals and three PATs. He went 15 of 18 on field goals last season while also tacking on 48 of 49 PAT attempts. So far this season, he’s made 10 of 11 field goal attempts with a long of 49 yards. He’s also made all 15 of his PAT tries.
Redshirt senior punter Gabe Nwosu may have the easiest job of the day this Saturday if the Bruin defense can’t stop the Nittany Lions. While it remains to be seen how many times he will punt against UCLA, he’s punted 10 times this season with half of those coming last week against Oregon. He’s averaging 46.7 yards per punt and six of his punts have landed inside the 20. Three of his punts have been longer than 50 yards and only one has gone for a touchback.
He will also probably handle most of Penn State’s kickoffs. So, maybe his day won’t be quite as easy as it could be. He’s been the team’s kickoff specialist for 26 of Penn State’s 31 kickoffs. He is averaging 63.5 yards per kickoff with 15 touchbacks while two have gone out of bounds.
Junior safety King Mack will be the Nittany Lions kickoff returner. Mack is a guy who began his career at Penn State in 2023, but transferred to Alabama last season before going back to Penn State this year. He’s returned four kickoffs with a season long of 73 yards, which accounts for the bulk of his 123 return yards.
Senior receiver Davonte Ross has returned seven of the Nittany Lions’ 11 punt returns. So, look for him to be the guy on Saturday. His season-long return of 34 yards was longer than Penn State’s three other punt returners combined yardage. Overall, Ross is averaging 10.6 yards per return.
Super senior receiver Trebor Peña is the only other Nittany Lion with positive punt return yardage. In two punt returns, his longer one was 10 yards long while the other one had no gain.
Go Bruins!
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