Penn State moves letterman Jordan Lucas to new role on the Lions' staff
Penn State welcomed letterman Jordan Lucas back to State College in late January as a recruiting coordinator. In mid-February, the Nittany Lions are moving him into a different role. The former cornerback will now be the program’s new defensive graduate assistant. The role opened up when Bryce Jones left Penn State to become a full-time coach at FCS program Northern Iowa. Jones worked with the defensive backs as a GA. Lucas will do the same. And, he has the playing experience to do so, of course.
At Penn State, Lucas totaled 180 tackles (11 for loss), four sacks, 28 passes defensed, three interceptions and three forced fumbles over 46 career games. He started 33 of them. After a five-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl title with the Kansas City Chiefs, Lucas joined the Marshall coaching staff before coming back to the Nittany Lions. He joins Kevin Ceh (offense), Danny O’Brien (offense), and Torrence Brown (defense) on the team’s now-completed four-man graduate assistant staff. All can be hands-on at practice and on game days but cannot go on the road to recruit.
With Lucas moving from the recruiting department to a GA role, the team will soon fill his role on that part of the staff under the director of general manager of personnel and recruitment Andy Frank and director of player personnel Kenny Sanders.
Tracking Penn State 2024 staff changes to date
Penn State has now hired seven new analysts this offseason. In addition to Vic Hall and new special teams analyst Keith Bruno and defensive analysts Zach Terrill and Jeff McInerney, it also brought former graduate assistant Mark Dupuis back in an offensive analyst role earlier this month. He spent the last four seasons as the wide receivers coach at Old Dominion. Additionally, the program has added Bill Queisert and Thomas Allen in the analyst department. They came to Penn State with new coordinators Andy Kotelnicki (offense) and Tom Allen (defense), respectively. Analysts who have moved on include Ola Adams (now the defensive backs coach at Indiana), Rick Lyster and Gabe Infante (who took on-field roles with Manny Diaz at Duke), Calvin Lowry, who is now the running backs coach at Middle Tennessee State, and Eric Raisbeck, who is now the UC Davis special teams coordinator.
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The Lions also lost Khalil Ahmad from the recruiting department. He took a promotion at Syracuse. But, he’s since left the Orange and is likely to return. Assistant recruiting coordinator for operations and visits Shannon Wellman has moved on, as well. She is replaced by recent Penn State alum Karsyn Kehler.
Penn State has had some on-field staff changes as well. The aforementioned Kotlenicki and Allen are replacing Mike Yurcich and Diaz, respectively. Stacy Collins is going back to Boise State. But, the Lions have hired Justin Lustig from Vanderbilt to replace him as the team’s special teams coordinator. Graduate assistant Bryce Jones is also moving on. He will be the new cornerbacks coach at FCS program Northern Iowa. And Lucas replaces him, of course.
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