After an up-and-down perform-
ance by the kicking units last season,
Penn State will have a new special
teams coach in 2019. In February, co-
ordinator Phil Galiano left to take a
job with the New Orleans Saints after
one season overseeing the Lions'
kicking game. And the following
week, PSU hired his
replacement: Joe
Lorig, who spent
the past three sea-
sons at Memphis
and knew James
Franklin from a
previous stop in
their respective
coaching careers.
"We are looking
forward to having Joe join our staff,"
Franklin said via a press release. "We
conducted a comprehensive study of
special teams coordinators across the
country to find the best fit for our
staff and identified Joe as the best
candidate. His special teams units
have a history of being among the
best in the country, and we know he
can continue that success here. I
have also known Joe for many years,
dating back to when we worked to-
gether at Idaho State under Larry
Lewis."
Penn State's special teams struggled
throughout the 2018 season, begin-
ning with the >
perienced
wideouts – Juwan Johnson,
DeAndre Thompkins and Brandon Polk
– were among the least reliable. As a
team, Penn State slipped to seventh in
the
Big Ten in passing, producing only
218.1 yards per game.
The position group has since under-
gone a makeover, with several of the
most dramatic moves having been initi-
ated by the players themselves. Johnson
left for Oregon as a graduate transfer,
and Polk also entered the transfer portal;
as
of early March, his destination had
not yet been determined.
Those departures, coupled with
Thompkins' graduation, have left Penn
State
with one of the younger receiver
corps in the Big Ten, maybe the country.
Of the team's six returning scholarship
wide receivers, four will have sophomore
eligibility in 2019: K.J. Hamler, Jahan
Dotson, Cam Sullivan-Brown and Mac
Hippenhammer. The other two – Daniel
George and Justin Shorter – will be red-
shirt
freshmen. Joining them this sum-
mer will be true freshmen John Dun-
more and T.J. Jones, as well as graduate
transfer George Campbell, formerly of
Florida
State. Campbell is the only one
of those receivers to have played more
than a single season of college football,
and that dearth of game experience will
put the returning wideouts in the spot-
light this spring. Their continued devel-
opment will be one of the most critical
aspects of the turnaround that head
LORIG
