Penn State football added three analysts Monday; two defensive and one offensive.
One of them should be quite familiar with Nittany Lions fans.
Dan Connor, who played linebacker at Penn State from 2004-07 and in that time was a two-time first-team All-American and 2007 Chuck Bednarik Award winner, will now be on Franklin’s staff.
After leaving Penn State, Connor played six seasons in the NFL for the Panthers, Cowboys and Giants. Connor then moved to coaching, where he became the linebackers coach at West Chester from 2014-15 and the head coach at Archbishop John Carroll for two seasons. Since 2018, Conner has been the defensive coordinator at Widner University in Chester, Pennsylvania.
The other defensive assistant is Rick Lyster, who worked with new Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz at Miami. After playing at Lafayette, Lyster become the strength and conditioning coach at his Alma Mater, and since then has work at Monmouth, Georgia Tech, Army and Miami.
The third new staff member is an offensive assistant who has established himself as one of the top high school coaches in Pennsylvania. In nine seasons at St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia, Gabe Infante went 91-23 and won four PIAA State Championships. He was the US Army Bowl’s National Coach of the Year in 2017.
After St. Joseph’s, Infante moved on to Temple, where he became the running backs coach in 2019 and added the job of recruiting coordinator in 2021
