Penn State makes reunion with former GA Andrew Jackson official
Penn State football has officially brought back one of its former graduate assistants. Andrew Jackson, who was most recently the defensive line coach at West Virginia, is back with the Nittany Lions as an analyst. BWI’s Sean Fitz reported on Jan. 24 that a reunion between the two sides was possible. CBS reported that the hire was reaching the finish line on Sunday. The deal is now done.
Jackson is a New York native. He spent four seasons with the Mountaineers but was not retained when Neal Brown was fired in December before Rich Rodriguez was hired to be his replacement. An LIU Post alum, Jackson also worked for Fordham, Mississippi State, James Madison, and Old Dominion, as well, in addition to his two seasons in State College from 2015-2016. He is the second defensive line focused addition of the offseason. He joins Greg Gattuso, who started work at Penn State on Monday after an 11-year stint as the head coach at Albany.
Penn State is currently amid winter workouts. It starts spring practice next month. And, it opens the 2025 season against Nevada on Aug. 30.
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Tracking Penn State staff movement this offseason
Jackson is the latest new analyst to join Penn State. Besides him and Gattuso, the Lions have also added Brent Zdebski from Ohio State and Shane Eachus from Georgetown. Both are tied to new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who of course replaces Tom Allen. He took three analysts with him to Clemson, including his son, Thomas. PSU also lost analyst Robb Smith to the co-defensive coordinator role at Rutgers.
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Beyond all of that, longtime running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider is leaving for Notre Dame. That is not official yet as of 9:50 a.m. ET on Feb. 11 but will be soon enough. It means Lions coach James Franklin has another new hire to make. It will be his second for his on-field 10 assistant coaches staff this offseason.
Franklin will address all of this during his first news conference of the 2025 season on Tuesday afternoon. Blue-White Illustrated will have complete coverage of it from State College. Second-year Nittany Lions are set to talk after the leader of the Lions.
