James Franklin adds former head coach to Penn State football staff

The month of January has brought a multitude of staffing changes for the Penn State football program. On Friday, the Nittany Lions made several additions to its support staff, including bringing on former FCS head coach Jeff McInerney in an analyst role. The moves come after a busy week for James Franklin in the personnel department, headlined by the hire of new special teams coordinator Justin Lustig.

Former head coach Jeff McInerney among late-week staffing additions for Penn State football

On Friday, On3 was the first to report that James Franklin was adding Jeff McInerney to the Penn State football staff. The former head coach at Central Connecticut State from 2006 to 2013, McInerney will serve as a defensive analyst.

McInerney most recently was a position coach in the XFL and AAF after working as a quality control analyst at Indiana between 2016 and 2018. The new addition to the Nittany Lions’ staff is originally from Bethlehem and played at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania in the early 1980s.

Penn State football is also bringing on Zach Terrill in a defensive analyst role. Terrill is a 2021 graduate of Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois, where he started his career as a student coach. He next was a graduate assistant at Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska, before coaching safeties at the University of Indianapolis. Terrill spent last season as a graduate assistant at Kent State.

247Sports later added on Friday that special teams analyst Eric Raisbeck is now no longer with the program.

Busy week of personnel changes for James Franklin

The last week has seen a flurry of change inside the walls of the Lasch Building. The busy week was headlined by the addition of SEC assistant Justin Lustig on Wednesday. Lustig joins Penn State football as its special teams coordinator, replacing Stacy Collins, who left for Boise State last week.

The Nittany Lions also said goodbye to letterman Calvin Lowry, who is leaving his analyst role to become the running backs coach at Middle Tennessee. Lowry’s position will likely be filled by Mark Dupuis, a former analyst welcomed back to Penn State after following Ricky Rahne to Old Dominion.

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