Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1254482
O F F - S E A S O N R E P O R T
part of his job to the teaching part. Said
Scott, "Seventeen- and 18-year-olds, at
that age, can solve all the problems in the
world.
So I decided to get out of teach-
ing."
Thus began Scott's long rise up the
coaching career ladder. His climb fol-
lowed a familiar pattern: small schools to
big schools, with a stop in the NFL along
the way.
His first step was a call to Pry, who by
then was serving as defensive coordina-
tor at Louisiana-Lafayette and brought
him aboard as a graduate assistant. Pry
left in 2007 for Memphis. But in 2010,
after a few other stops, including a
three-year stint on the coaching staff at
his alma mater, Scott found himself re-
united with Pry, this time Georgia
Southern.
A=er just one season together, the two
coaches once again went their separate
ways. Pry took a job on Franklin's new
sta< at Vanderbilt, while Scott le= in 2013
to become defensive line coach at Texas
Tech. In the years that followed, Scott
coached at football's highest levels,
spending two seasons with the New York
Jets before returning to the college game
as defensive line coach at Arkansas and
South Carolina.
He's never coached in the Big Ten, but
Scott said he's always regarded it, along
with the Southeastern Conference, as
college football's highest echelon.
"I'm excited to coach in the Big Ten," he
said. "I've always felt like the Big Ten was
one of the best two leagues in the country.
In my opinion, I felt like it was the Big Ten
and the SEC. When you look at the teams
that come out of those leagues, and the
grind that it is week to week, I'm super
excited. … You see a lot of young men get-
ting dra=ed out of this league. When I
coached for the Jets, we had quite a few
guys from the Big Ten and SEC. That
seemed to be where most of our players
came from, those two conferences. So I
couldn't be more excited to be in a con-
ference like this and be on a great team
like Penn State.
"I'm looking forward to doing every-
thing I can to help this great university
and help our football team win as many
games as we can and win a Big Ten cham-
pionship and higher," Scott added. "I'm
looking to be a good piece to that. They
have a great foundation here [and] I'm ex-
cited about what we can do. I'm excited
about going to di

