Three days after word got out that Penn State was losing its special teams coordinator, Stacy Collins, to Bosie State, it looks like PSU’s closing in on Collins’ successor.
Matt Zenitz of 247Sports first reported Penn State is expected to hire Vanderbilt’s Justin Lustig as its special teams coordinator, which was among the positions he held at Vandy.
Penn State is expected to hire Vanderbilt tight ends coach, special teams coach and associate head coach Justin Lustig, sources tell @247sports.
Former Broyles nominee who has worked at Vandy the last three seasons.https://t.co/dJORJ80Uo5 pic.twitter.com/l3Aea2z8PL
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 16, 2024
Lustig had been with Vandy since the 2021 season. Along with being the special teams coordinator, was also the team’s tight ends coach and associate head coach. In 2018, while Lustig was an assistant at Syracuse, he was nominated for the Broyles Award, presented annually to the nation’s top assistant coach. At Syracuse, Lustig coached special teams, running backs and outside receivers at various points throughout his four-year tenure. Lustig is a PA guy from Erie who played at Cathedral Prep.
After that, he played defensive back at Bucknell from 1997-2000.
He began his coaching career in 2001 at Division III Christopher Newport in Virginia. After two seasons there, Lustig returned to PA, coaching cornerbacks at Villanova for a season. He then returned to Christoper Newport, where he was the team’s special teams coordinator, defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator from 2004-05. He coached special teams and running backs at Eastern Illinois from 2006-08, then did the same at Louisiana Tech from 2009-10. After that, Lustig stayed in the MAC and went to Ball State, where he coached special teams and running backs from 2011-15 and then added assistant head coach to his duties for the 2015 season.
Lustig also has head coaching experience, being the boss at Edinboro and going 9-2 in the 2016 season before moving on to Syracuse.
Lustig will be Penn State’s third new coordinator. On offense, head coach James Franklin hired Andy Kotelnicki to replace Mike Yurcich, whom he fired in November. Defensive coordinator Manny Diaz left on his own terms, becoming the head coach at Duke, and Franklin hired Tom Allen to succeed him. Now, Lustig will be succeeding Collins.
