Penn State Announces Joe Lorig As New Special Teams Coordinator

Penn State announced Thursday afternoon that former Texas Tech special teams coordinator Joe Lorig had been hired as the Nittany Lions’ new special teams coordinator, taking over for the departed Phil Galiano.

While Lorig had only been at Texas Tech for a couple weeks, he has an impressive resume otherwise. He was in charge of special teams at Memphis from 2016 to 2018, where the Tigers’ special teams were routinely one of the better units in the nation. Memphis finished either No. 1 or No. 2 in the AAC for kick return yardage allowed during all three of Lorig’s seasons, while they finished in the top three for punt return yardage allowed in two of his three seasons.

Perhaps most impressively — his units never surrendered a touchdown over his three seasons. That is what the kids would call “lit.”

While Lorig doesn’t have any ties to the northeast — outside of Memphis, he’s really only coached on the west coast — it should be noted that he coached at Idaho State with James Franklin way back in 1999.

Welcome, Coach Lorig!