James Franklin comments on reports of Joe Lorig to Oregon

In the Outback Bowl postgame press conference, Penn State coach James Franklin addressed reports that special teams coordinator Joe Lorig is expected to join Dan Lanning’s staff at Oregon. Although Franklin acknowledged that Lorig is “being pursued,” he did not say whether he has accepted a position with the Ducks.

“Yeah, I’m not going to address that right now,” the coach said. “Obviously he’s been pursued. He is being pursued. I think you guys know that. That information has been out in the public. But we’ll see how that plays out. There’s a lot of things that factor into this, as you guys could imagine, some professional and some personal. But we’ll see how that goes.

“I think you guys know I’ve been pretty adamant in the past about the type of moves, lateral moves, but there’s also some factors when it comes to where guys are from. Both Joe and his wife are from there, so that factors into this thing as well.”

An Edmonds, Washington, native, Lorig began his coaching career in the state of Oregon. He played cornerback at Western Oregon University in nearby Monmouth from 1994-95, and started coaching there soon after his playing career ended.

Lorig coached the Wolves defensive backs for two years before becoming a position coach at Idaho State, where he eventually served as the school’s defensive coordinator from 2003-2006.

He has since served in a littany of roles and spent time at UTEP, Central Washington University, Arizona State, and Utah State.

From 2016-18, Lorig served as special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach at Memphis. Lanning was the inside linebackers coach for the Tigers from 2016-17.

Joe Lorig has worked in the same role on James Franklin’s Penn State staff since 2019.

Penn State finished 7-6 this year in Franklin’s eighth season in charge. It fell in its bowl game Saturday by score of 24-10 to the Arkansas Razorbacks.