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B L U E - W H I T E G A M E P R E V I E W o:ense or defense. I was a defensive co- ordinator for many years. You don't meet every day as a whole defense, be- cause the corners need to hear di:erent things than the D-line, which needs to hear di:erent things than the lineback- ers. You meet [as a group] once in a while, but you meet most of the time in- dividually." In special teams, Lorig said, "no one does that. They meet all together for 15 or 20 minutes or whatever it is every day. I try to model [a;er the o:ense and de- fense], so we'll have individualized meetings. If you're in punt, you'll be with your position group. Sounds like a little thing, but over the course of a sea- son the amount of individual attention those guys get" is substantially in- creased. And that, Lorig said, "gets all the other coaches and sta: to buy in. Special teams can't be about me. It's not my deal. It's our deal. When you get a collective group together like that, really special things happen." Lorig spent the past three seasons at Memphis, where his kicking units were some of the best in the country. The Tigers twice 9nished in the top 9ve of the Football Bowl Subdivision in kicko:- return average and were in the top 20 in kicko: coverage all three years. They didn't allow a single touchdown in the return game during Lorig's tenure with the program. That performance attracted the atten- tion of bigger schools, and this past winter, the Edmonds, Wash., native was hired away by Texas Tech. He had been in Lubbock for a little more than a month when Penn State approached him about 9lling the vacancy that had opened up when Galiano joined the New Orleans Saints' sta: a;er just one sea- son in charge of the Nittany Lions' kick- ing game. Lorig already knew Franklin; they had roomed together as assistants at Idaho State back in the early days of their re- spective coaching careers and had crossed paths from time to time in the years that followed, usually at the an- nual coaches convention. In recent years, when they saw each other, Franklin would o;en bring up something from a Memphis game he had seen on TV. "So I knew he was following my ca- reer," Lorig said. "And he had said good things to Mike Norvell, who was my head coach [with the Tigers]. I felt my opportunity would probably come at some point, but I just didn't know when." That opportunity arrived after a dis- appointing performance by Penn State's kicking units in 2018. The Lions began the year by surrendering a touchdown on their very first kickoff of the season against Appalachian State, SOMETHING SPECIAL During his three sea- sons at Memphis, Lorig's special teams units twice ranked in the top five of the FBS in kickoff-return average, and they were in the top 20 in kickoff coverage all three years. Photo by Nate Bauer

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