Blue White Illustrated

NEWS & NOTES Maybe there are ways to pull apart all the factors that hindered Penn State's offense the past two seasons and deter- mine who's at fault for the sacks, the three-and-outs and the overall incon- sistency. Maybe it's possible to separate the personnel inadequacies from the schematic issues and an array of more mundane problems, such as the lousy weather that the Nittany Lions played in for much of the 2015 nonconference season. But there is one certainty regarding their performance, and it's this: Some- thing must change if they're going to be competitive in the Big Ten's increasingly powerful East Division. Well, in the past month, something has changed. On Nov. 29, less than 24 hours after wrapping up their regular season with a 55-16 loss to Michigan State, the Nittany Lions dismissed of- fensive coordinator John Donovan. Two weeks later, after conducting a national search, they announced the hiring of Donovan's successor: Fordham head coach Joe Moorhead. A Pennsylvania native with a reputa- tion as an offensive guru and a talent for turning bad situations into good ones, Moorhead will be called on to improve an offense that has struggled the past two years but has steadily been amass- ing young talent at the skill positions and on the offensive line. "I am incredibly excited to join the Penn State Football family," Moorhead said via news release on Dec. 12, the day his hiring was announced. "My family and I are thrilled to be coming home. It is an unbelievable opportunity to help contribute to a program with a rich tra- dition and promising future." Moorhead, 42, grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Central Catholic High, and he went on to attend Ford- ham, where he played quarterback for the Rams in the 1990s. He began his coaching career at Georgetown before moving on to assistant coaching posts at Akron and Connecticut. In 2010, he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on a Huskies team that won a Big East championship. Taking the head coaching job at his alma mater in 2012, Moorhead guided a team that had finished 1-10 the year be- F O O T B A L L Moorhead hired to oversee oense Lions' new coordinator orchestrated turnaround at Fordham | JOE MOORHEAD PSU OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR My family and I are thrilled to be coming home. It is an unbelievable opportunity to help contribute to a program with a rich tradition and promising future." "

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