Moving On: Penn State RB Coach Ja’Juan Seider Leaving For Notre Dame

This will surprise a lot of people.

Seider had been one of Penn State’s longest-tenured assistants. He’d been in Happy Valley since the 2018 season. In that time, he helped players such as Miles Sanders, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen become stars. Seider was also big in the development of Journey Brown, who could well have been a star had he not been forced to medically retire from football in 2020.

This is the second time this winter Penn State has lost an assistant to the same job at another school, something head coach James Franklin has made it a point in the past to try to avoid.

LATERAL MOVES NOT IDEAL

General images during the Penn State co-coordinator and players news conference prior to the 2023 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023, in Atlanta, Ga. Penn State will face Ole Miss in the NCAA college football bowl game on December 30th. (Paul Abell via Abell Images for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl)

Franklin doesn’t want lateral moves. He talked at length about it in November 2023 when there was speculation about then-defensive coordinator Manny Diaz leaving Penn State, which he ultimately did to become Duke’s head coach.

“I think what we talked about in the past is what can we do and what do we need to do here at Penn State to make sure that guys don’t leave for lateral moves,” Franklin said. “To me, that’s really the main focus. We’ve got to make sure that assistants don’t leave for assistant positions and coordinators don’t leave to be coordinators. If guys have a chance for a clear, obvious promotion, we want that for him. We’d like to create a situation here for Manny and his family that he wants to be here until he has an opportunity to get a really good head coaching job that’s going to allow him to flourish. I think Brent [Pry] handled it probably as well as any. He had a great job, turned down a bunch of jobs waiting for the right one.”

NICK AND THE FATMAN TO ND?

Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: Penn State RB Nick Singleton

Could Nick Singleton and Kaytron “Fatman” Allen, who became the first RB duo to break 1,000 yards in a season this past year, be following Seider to Notre Dame? Probably not, considering Notre Dame has two star backs of its own in Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price back. But they do have the option thanks to the spring transfer portal window.

With that said, as long as Franklin is still the coach at Penn State, it’s hard if not impossible to see this happening.

This is the second time this winter Penn State has lost an assistant in a lateral move, with DC Tom Allen leaving for Clemson in January.

Report: Penn State DC Tom Allen Leaving For Clemson

Penn State ended up getting arguably the best defensive coordinator in the country in Jim Knowles, so it worked out.

We’ll see what happens here.