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Penn State adds experienced college football staffer with Big Ten ties to recruiting department

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•06/01/23•

GregPickel

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A general view of the Penn State Blue Band during pregame ceremonies prior to the College Football game between the Villanova Wildcats and the Penn State Nittany Lions on September 25, 2021, at Beaver Stadium in University Park, PA. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Penn State has added an off-field staffer with Big Ten ties and plenty of college football experience to its recruiting department. Former Delaware general manager of football operations Brett Arnold is now an assistant recruiting coordinator for the Lions, a source confirmed to Blue-White Illustrated.

Arnold, who hails from Langhorne, Pa., just as James Franklin does and attended Neshaminy High School, was an Associated Press first-team FCS All-American punter at Massachusetts in 2008. He transitioned into a marketing role with the Minutemen before moving on to his first stop with the Blue Hens as an operations assistant. He’d spend four years in ticket sales next, two with the Philadelphia Eagles and another two with the Temple Owls.

From there, Arnold would become the Director of Internal Football Operations for Rutgers, a position he held from 2012-2016. At that point, he left Piscataway to serve for three seasons as the Director of Football Operations at Sam Houston State. He then returned to the Scarlet Knights as their Director of Football Administration for the 2020 and 2021 seasons before spending a year in the role he left at Delaware to come to State College.

Penn State and Delaware play each other this season, of course. The sides meet in Week 2. Kickoff is set for Noon ET, and the game will be streamed exclusively on Peacock.

What will Arnold do at Penn State?

Arnold will work closely with other members of the Penn State recruiting staff, which is headed up by general manager of personnel and recruitment Andy Frank and director of player personnel Kenny Sanders, to lead the Lions’ off-field recruiting efforts. An April job posting for an assistant recruiting coordinator laid out the following responsibilities the chosen candidate would have:

  • Assist with all aspects of EVALUATING, RANKING AND RECRUITING the top prospects from the state of Pennsylvania, the northeast region, and across the entire country [and] ssist the head coach and assistant coaches with all aspects of their RECRUITING TRAVEL.

  • Assist with all aspects of VISIT PLANNING / OPERATIONS and serve as visit HOST for top prospects and their guests, [and] assist with Recruiting INTERNSHIP PROGRAM.

There are other tasks, as well, such as creative and marketing and helping verbal commitments enroll at the school, among other things. Like everyone within the Penn State football program, the recruiting department members wear many hats. Arnold is the third newest member of it this offseason. He joins Khalil Ahmad, who also spent time at Rutgers earlier in his career, and D.J. Bryant, who came from Colorado.

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