James Franklin: Stan Drayton is ‘invaluable’ addition to Penn State football staff

For the second time this offseason, James Franklin is earning high marks for his personnel management, hiring Stan Drayton as the new Penn State football running backs coach. The Nittany Lions made the most of a difficult situation after losing long-time assistant Ja’Juan Seider to Notre Dame late in the hiring cycle.

“Stan Drayton brings decades of experience coaching running backs at the highest levels to our program,” Franklin said in a statement released Friday. “He is an important addition to our staff. His experience as a head coach and working alongside elite backs in his career will be invaluable to our running backs room.”

Despite an underwhelming stint as the head coach at nearby Temple, Drayton holds high regard nationally at the running back position. Entering his 32nd year in the profession, Drayton has coached seven 1,000-yard rushers, five NFL Draft picks, and two All-Americans. He’s a highly accomplished recruiter, connected to stars like Cam Newton, Bijan Robinson, and Brian Westbrook.

“I am excited and honored to be joining this elite organization led by Coach Franklin,” said Drayton. “I have so much respect for the culture and program he has built here. Penn State has a rich running back tradition and a very talented running back room now. I am thrilled for this opportunity and am looking forward to getting to work.”

Franklin: Penn State football has “most attractive running back job in the country”

Stan Drayton will now get the chance to work with two more 1,000-yard rushers, with both Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen returning to the Nittany Lions backfield in 2025. Coming off a historic junior season where the duo became the first teammates in Penn State football history to each rush for 1,000 yards, Singleton and Allen are highly appealing to the talented running backs coach making his way to Happy Valley.

“I think they also now are at a point of their career, that I think early on, maybe they struggled splitting time, and I think now they understand the value of splitting time,” Franklin said of his star tailbacks. “It obviously helps that they both rush for 1,000 yards.

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“Then, you know, the hiring process with that. It’s funny because people, just like hiring a defense coordinator, like everybody kind of is anxious about that and what it’s going to look like, and do they [Singleton and Allen] still fit. Well at this point of the program, it makes no sense to go hire somebody that doesn’t fit our program and fit our personnel. We’re not at a point that we’re going to start over. It’s to continue to build that same way with the running back coach.

“I would make the argument with Nick and Fat [Allen] and the rest of the room coming back, and what we’ve recruited and who’s committed to us out there, it’s arguably the most attractive running back job in the country. So those things help with that.”

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