Ex-Nittany Lion joins staff of future Penn State football opponent

A Penn State football letterman is on the move in the coaching ranks. On Thursday, former Nittany Lions linebacker Nyeem Wartman-White was officially introduced as the new defensive line coach at UMass.

Wartman-White joined the Minutemen football staff under new head coach Joe Harasymiak late last month. The ex-Nittany Lion spent the last three seasons at Akron under former Penn State football offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, where he coached defensive line and outside linebackers.

Welcome back to New England Coach Nyeem Wartman-White!@NyeemWartman | #Flagship 🚩 pic.twitter.com/izijgnbKwT

— UMass Football (@UMassFootball) January 2, 2025

In a previous stint in New England, Wartman-White coached the defensive front at FCS New Hampshire from 2020 to 2022. He got his start in coaching as a defensive graduate assistant under Moorhead at Mississippi State in 2018 and 2019.

Wartman-White was one of six true freshmen to see the field for Penn State football under Bill O’Brien in 2012. He earned Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2013. Starting 12 games in 2014, he led the Nittany Lions in tackles in the Pinstripe Bowl, the program’s first post-sanctions bowl game.

However, Wartman-White only appeared in four games over the final two years of his Penn State football career, losing both the 2015 and 2016 seasons to injury. He finished his time in Blue and White with 110 tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss.

While still several years away, there’s a chance that Nittany Lions fans could welcome Nyeem Wartman-White back to Beaver Stadium as a member of the opposing sideline.

This fall, Penn State football added UMass to its non-conference schedule, with a single matchup to be played on September 16, 2028. The university will pay UMass $1.6 million to travel to Happy Valley. In 2023, the Nittany Lions defeated UMass 63-0.

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