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Penn State will reportedly lose an analyst to a play-calling opportunity elsewhere

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•about 8 hours•

GregPickel

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Penn State is reportedly set to lose its fourth analyst of the offseason. According to reports from Football Scoop, ESPN, and NJ Advanced Media, Robb Smith is leaving the Nittany Lions to join Greg Schiano’s staff at Rutgers for the third time in his lengthy coaching career. He will be the co-defensive coordinator and have play-calling responsibilities, according to Pete Thamel.

Besides his multiple previous stints with the Scarlet Knights, Smith also spent time under Schiano with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Smith spent the last two seasons in State College. Penn State put his defensive background to work as an offensive analyst. He was tasked with self-scouting the Lions’ attack from a defensive coordinator’s mindset to find flaws and also things that could be leaned upon.

“Robb’s on offense,” Penn State coach James Franklin said at Big Ten Media Days in July of 2023. “I think there’s a ton of value of having defensive guys in the offensive room and offensive guys in the defensive room in that analyst role, so you have different perspectives and lenses on how we look at things.

“The reality is offensive guys and defensive guys look at the game very differently. So there’s a ton of value with having that perspective in the room.”

Smith is the fourth analyst to depart the Lions this offseason. He joins Thomas Allen, Jeff McInerney, and Zach Terrill. That group left when Tom Allen took the defensive coordinator job at Clemson. They all have yet to be replaced.

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Penn State will likely add analysts with ties to Jim Knowles

Penn State will officially introduce new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles today. He replaces Allen, of course. It’s likely that at least some of the Lions’ open analysts jobs will be filled by people with ties to Knowles. That is a fairly common occurrence in the 2025 college football world.

“In the old days I think a lot of times you hire a coordinator, and they would have the flexibility to bring staff with them, which is understandable,” Penn State coach James Franklin said last February. As you guys know, I’m a loyal guy to Penn State, I’m a loyal guy to the staff, I’m a loyal guy to the players. I think we got a great staff here. That was another big part of the people we were hiring, they had to be comfortable with the current staff. 

“I think under the new college football what helps with that a little bit is the analyst positions allowed me to retain the staff that we currently had, but then also be able to bring some people in so he had some familiar faces in the room and also people that could help in the transition, whether it’s Indiana to Penn State. Or whether it’s Kansas to Penn State. Or whether it’s Vanderbilt to Penn State. So those things I think have been helpful.”

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