UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Between December and January, as Penn State's coaching staff underwent one coaching change after the other, the Nittany Lions might've been in line to lose another assistant coach.
Enter Sean Spencer, Penn State's defensive line coach who had suitors call in previous offseasons and in all likelihood will hear his phone ring again in the years to come. That little detail helps explain why, lost in the shuffle of Penn State announcing in January the hiring of David Corley as wide receivers coach and bringing in Ja'Juan Seider to coach the running backs, was the part of the news release announcing Spencer's promotion to associate head coach.
It's a title defensive coordinator Brent Pry used to hold.
“Well, I’ll tell you what: Coach Spencer and I are awful good buddies and Spence had a lot of teams come courting him, and he does a great job in our program," Pry said at the conclusion of spring ball. "We wanted to make sure he stayed here, coach Franklin and I both, Sandy [Barbour], that was a team effort and we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep the best people here and Sean Spencer certainly is a big part of what we do, and I'm blessed and fortunate to be the defensive coordinator at Penn State and I felt like that was the right thing. Coach [James] Franklin felt that way and I felt that way and we want to do what’s in the best interest of Penn State, but also take care of Sean Spencer. So he’s going to do a great job with that role and he already has.”
Spencer's official role is defensive line coach/run game coordinator/associate head coach. It might be fair to also categorize him as lead recruiter when it came to Penn State landing Seider, their new running backs coach. While Franklin likes to keep a running list of coaches he'd like to work with and the annual coaching convention is a prime time to pick their brains, Spencer was part of the process too.
Seider met Franklin at the coaching convention two years ago when he was hanging out with Spencer, whom he's known for years. When Spencer was at Bowling Green in 2009-2010, Seider was the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Marshall. Through a mutual friend the two have known each other since Seider was coaching high school football in Florida.
Spencer introduced Seider to Franklin two years ago at the convention and they kept tabs on one another since then. When Charles Huff left to join Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State and Josh Gattis departed for Alabama, Seider reconnected with Spencer first.
"It was one of those deals where you keep track of each other and follow each other, and this deal just happened," Seider told me, seated inside his new office overlooking the Lasch practice fields. "It was a transition period being the only guy they kept at the University of Florida. Could've stayed, but I just felt like I’m coming in with four new guys, I’m the only guy left and where do you fit at in that deal?' I called Sean and was like, ‘Hey, you all still got a spot open up there?’"
After Gattis left Penn State, Franklin shuffled the staff around, moving the newly-hired Corley from running backs coach to wide receivers. That meant there was an opening for Seider or someone else. Seider drove up to interview in front of Franklin, but there was one problem: In between all of this, the Cleveland Browns wanted to make Seider their running backs coach.
"Right before this happened," Seider said with a smile. "Really didn’t want to go to the NFL because I like the recruiting part of it and getting out of the office and not just watching football all day. I told Sean, ‘Man, is this thing happening?’ It was funny as I was talking to him coach [Franklin] had already called and was like, 'I want to offer you the job and we got some flexibility.' He was like, ‘What do you think?’ I was like, ‘Coach, my bags were packed a week ago. I’ve been waiting on you.’ "
Valuing the opinions of his assistant coaches, coordinators and associate coaches certainly carries some weight, especially when it's someone like Spencer, Pry and offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne who are the only holdovers on this staff that came with Franklin from Vanderbilt. Of course many of Franklin's relationships with those three extend beyond Vanderbilt.
“I think if you look at a lot of coaches at big-time programs like Penn State, they got two or three core guys that have been with them for a long time,” Franklin said last winter while he was in the midst of the staff shuffle.
It's clear who those three guys are around here and making sure they stay intact — whether through title changes and promotions — will help keep this program moving forward. While Franklin said many times before the one thing he can't have is coaches leaving for lateral positions, ultimately he won't stand in the way if that next step to their career goal isn't here .
So far for Penn State's big three that hasn't been the case. Pry was elevated to defensive coordinator since he's been here, Rahne to offensive coordinator, and Spencer to run game coordinator and associate head coach. Phil Galiano, who was formally introduced this winter as the special teams coordinator, was a defensive consultant last season. Tyler Bowen, Penn State's new tight ends coach and offensive recruiting coordinator, worked under Franklin as a graduate assistant at Penn State and also under Moorhead at Fordham.
"I think it takes a while to get fully indoctrinated [into the offense] and we have to go through the whole game planning process first," Rahne said. "We have a lot of idiosyncrasies during the week with game planning that until you go through it, I don’t know if you're fully indoctrinated. They have a great feel for the actual schemes and things like that. They’re pretty good on that.”
Once the school year ends and Seider's family finds a house in the State College area, they'll begin the next phase of their transition too. Until then, with his office walls most bare and recruiting camps up next, he still expects to hear Spencer's familiar booming voice coming from down the hall.
"Whatever happens here, blame Spence," Seider said with a laugh. "So far, so good."