Former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead is busy putting together his coaching staff for the Akron Zips, and a former Penn State player could be among those joining the staff. According to Yahoo’s Pete Thamel, via Twitter, Billy Fessler could join Moorhead’s coaching staff as a quarterbacks coach.
Fessler is currently a graduate assistant at Ohio State. Fessler is an offensive assistant for the Buckeyes and has plenty of experience with Moorhead already. Fessler was on the Penn State roster during Moorhead’s time at Penn State as an offensive coordinator.
When Moorhead left Penn State to become the head coach at Mississippi State, Fessler joined him as a graduate assistant in 2019. Fessler was a graduate assistant at Slippery Rock prior to that, working with the Division 2 powerhouse program in western Pennsylvania.
Fessler played quarterback at Penn State from 2014 through 2018, entirely as a backup reserve option. Fessler also played on special teams as the team’s primary holder for field goals and extra points.
Sources: Akron is targeting Billy Fessler as the school’s next QB coach. He’s an Ohio State GA, former Joe Moorhead GA at Mississippi State and played QB for Moorhead at Penn State.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 6, 2021
Moorhead accepted the position of head coach at Akron after Oregon fell short in the Pac-12 championship game last week. Moorhead had been Oregon’s offensive coordinator after being removed as head coach by Mississippi State. Moorhead left Oregon before Ducks head coach Mario Cristobal left the program for an opportunity to return to Miami as the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Miami removed Manny Diaz as head coach to pave the way for Cristobal.
At Penn State, the Nittany Lions could be about to lose its second co-defensive coordinator. Anthony Poindexter, who had been believed to be the top in-house option to carry on the role of defensive coordinator, has reportedly emerged as the leading candidate to be the next head coach at Virginia. Brent Pry, Penn State’s defensive coordinator, accepted an offer to become the head coach at Virginia Tech.
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