Dan Connor – Syndication Server

Penn State adds another analyst to the football staff

Penn State adds special teams analyst to staff from Auburn

Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] had an analyst role to fill on his staff after seeing Ken Whisenhunt move on to a similar role with Alabama this week. It appears that the vacancy has been filled. Eric Sachse, a former Boise State kicker who most recently was serving as an analyst with Auburn, was confirmed to be the latest addition to the support staff for the football program.

Sachse will be the second special teams analyst for Penn State to help assist special teams coordinator Stacy Collins, who also has a previous stop at Boise State in his coaching career. Collins and Sachse did not overlap their time with the Boise State program, however. Penn State’s other special teams analyst is Eric Raisbeck.

Sachse spent one season at Boise State after four years at a Division 3 school, Trinity College. At Boise State, Sachse converted 14 of 17 field goal attempts and connected on 61 of his 62 extra point attempts for the Broncos in 2019.

Other analysts on Penn State’s support staff include [autotag]Deion Barnes[/autotag], [autotag]Dan Connor[/autotag], [autotag]Gabe Infante[/autotag], [autotag]Calvin Lowry[/autotag], [autotag]Frank Leonard[/autotag], [autotag]Rick Lyster[/autotag], [autotag]Danny O’Brien[/autotag], [autotag]Danny Rocco[/autotag], and [autotag]Charles Walker[/autotag].

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Joey Porter Jr. receives national weekly honor after Week 1

Joey Porter Jr. received a national weekly honor for his performance against Purdue in Week 1.

Penn State cornerback [autotag]Joey Porter Jr.[/autotag] had an active season debut against Purdue, and he is being recognized for his performance against the Boilermakers. Porter Jr. was named the National Player of the Week by the Bednarik Award on Tuesday.

Porter Jr. had eight tackles, recovered a fumble, and broke up six passes during Penn State’s Week 1 win at Purdue. He also came close to hauling in his first interception of the year and returning it for a touchdown, but he couldn’t quite finish making the play.

Penn State is home to the most Bednarik Award winners in the history of the award. [autotag]Paul Posluszny[/autotag] is a two-time winner. Other Nittany Lions to win the award include [autotag]Dan Connor[/autotag] and [autotag]LaVar Arrington[/autotag].

Last year’s recipient of the Bednarik Award was Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis. The last Big Ten player to win the award was Chase Young of Ohio State in 2019.

Porter Jr. and Penn State safety [autotag]Ji’Ayir Brown[/autotag] are the two Nittany Lions on the watch list for this year’s Bednarik Award.

Penn State quarterback [autotag]Sean Clifford[/autotag] was named the Big Ten’s co-offensive player of the week.

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Bednarik Award watch list includes key pair of Nittany Lions

Penn State has more Chuck Bednarik Awards than any other school. Will either of these two players add another to the list?

As Penn State opened training camp to prepare for the 2022 college football season, a handful of players were recognized on watch lists for some individual honors in 2022. The Maxwell Football Club unveiled its watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award, and two players from Penn State appeared on the watch list.

Senior safety [autotag]Ji’Ayir Brown[/autotag] and redshirt junior cornerback [autotag]Joey Porter Jr.[/autotag] were recognized on the Bednarik Award watch list.

[autotag]Dan Connor[/autotag] is the most recent Penn State player to take home the Bednarik Award. He did so in 2007 to make it three consecutive seasons a Penn State player won the award. [autotag]Paul Posluszny[/autotag] won the award in 2005 and 2006 and is one of two all-time winners to win the award multiple times. Current Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald is the only other player to win multiple Bednarik Awards. He did so in 1995 and 1996, the first two seasons the award was presented.

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In addition to Posluszny and Connor, Penn State also saw [autotag]LaVar Arrington[/autotag] win the award in 1999 to boost Penn State’s total to four Bednarik Awards. No other school has more than two Bednarik Award winners (Northwestern, Georgia, LSU, and Alabama each have two Bednarik award winners).

Last year’s recipient of the Bednarik Award was Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis. The last Big Ten player to win the award was Chase Young of Ohio State in 2019.

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WE ARE… Penn State’s top 5 all-time recruits

Who are the top five recruits all-time to play for Penn State football? Here’s a look.

It appears as of late that [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his Penn State staff have the recruiting game figured out for the most part. They have posted three straight classes inside the top 20 and most recently brought in their first big quarterback recruit in [autotag]Drew Allar.[/autotag] Sadly though, the recruiting class being high ranked hardly means much. It comes down to coaching, team building, and most importantly because of themselves.

Spring ball is officially in full swing, and the Blue-White game is just weeks away, so as the latest recruiting class gets acclimated to State College why not look back? Look back at some of the best recruits to come into State College over the years based on the 247Sports rankings.

The top five has a good mix of new and old faces for Nittany Lions fans so for that make sure your legs are fresh for the back and forth.

Dan Connor among three new analysts at Penn State

Dan Connor returns to Penn State as James Franklin adds three analysts to staff

One of Penn State’s all-time best players is back in Happy Valley. Former linebacker Dan Connor has joined the football staff to take on a role as an analyst for head coach James Franklin. Connor is just one of the new additions to the football staff, however. Penn State is also welcoming Gabe Infante and Rick Lyster as analysts.

Infante was hired b new Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz when Diaz was briefly the head coach at Temple. Infante, an accomplished high school coach in Philadelphia, remained with the Temple staff after Diaz quickly left to become the head coach at Miami, but Infante became available following another coaching change at Temple this offseason.

Lyster is also connected to Diaz. He worked as an analyst for Miami under Diaz prior to his arrival at Penn State. Diaz having some familiarity with two analysts that will be helping him with the defensive game planning is certainly nice to have available.

Adding a Penn State legend in Connor is certainly nice to see as well. Connor has been building up his coaching career since retiring from his six-year NFL career. Connor has been a defensive assistant for Division 2 West Chester and a high school head coach in Philadelphia, and a defensive coordinator for Widener. Now, he takes his next step back with the program where he became the school’s all-time leading tackler and a two-time All-American.

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