NCAA Rule Change Technically Means Penn State’s Quarterback Coach Is a Graduate Assistant
Unpacking a unique situation when it comes to Penn State's quarterback room.
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It’s a bit of a technicality, but thanks to an NCAA rule modification, Penn State heads into its 2024 season without an assistant coach specifically charged with the responsibility of coaching quarterbacks.
While not the first time under James Franklin’s watch, it is a fairly unique situation. Since arriving at Penn State, all of the Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinators under Franklin - with the exception of John Donovan - have officially been titled with the responsibility of both offensive coordinator and quarterback coach. When it comes to Donovan, it was Franklin protege and current Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne taking on a dual role, coaching quarterbacks and tight ends in 2014 and 2015 prior to Donovan’s eventual departure from the program.
In reality nearly every program in America coaches quarterbacks as a group effort. An offensive coordinator might have a major role in the development of his quarterback, but no head coach is going to be completely hands off at the most important position on the team. James Franklin - a former quarterback himself - is no different.
But all of those technical bits aside, Penn State simply doesn’t have an assistant coach with the role assigned. That responsibility falls to graduate assistant Danny O’Brien, a former quarterback under Franklin while at Maryland who has been with the program since joining as an analyst in 2021. For those not following along as closely at home, this isn’t exactly a surprise - Drew Allar and his fellow quarterbacks have been stalwart supporters of O’Brien following the firing of former offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich last season. Aside from some nonspecific mumbling about “who would do what” following the hiring of new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, the idea that O’Brien would end up carrying much, most or nearly all of the load isn’t a shock.
As an aside, it wasn’t long ago O’Brien was living in what amounted to the attic in James Franklin’s garage. The same space that Franklin lived in during COVID-19 to effectively quarantine from the his family.
That piece of personal trivia aside, the coaching situation is a wrinkle brought on by a recent NCAA rule modification.
“Right now, he is a GA,” Franklin said of O’Brien at media day on Saturday. “But to your point, there's really no difference any more with the rule change between a GA and an analyst. We had Danny -- that's one of the reasons why this worked out well, is we had a guy that still qualified to be a GA because the rules say you have to be within seven years of either graduating a school or playing [O’Brien’s last year as professional was in 2019.] So we felt like he had the experience and the knowledge to serve that role but still fell under the GA rules, where [prior to the rule change] if he was an analyst, he wouldn't be able to coach.”
The rule change Franklin is talking about is the key here. In June the NCAA removed some restrictions on countable coaches in football. Now - according to the NCAA’s own wording:
Any staff member may provide technical and tactical instruction to student-athletes during practice and competition.
So even if O’Brien isn’t a full blown assistant he can still take point on the development of Penn State’s quarterback room [although he still can’t recruit off-campus.] But again, it’s a group effort between O’Brien, Franklin, Kotelnicki and to some extent, Allar’s private offseason quarterback coach Brad Maendler.
“So it ended up working out really well,” Franklin added. “… right now, he is currently a graduate assistant, and for a number of reasons, that's probably as far as I can go with answering this question at this time.”
It’s unknown what stipulations are holding Franklin back from answering in more detail but college athletics is a playground for finding ways to give people new titles in order to justify giving them more money. Nevertheless, when fans get angry at Allar for making a mistake this season, they can - and can’t - yell at the quarterback coach about it.