Coach James Franklin and Penn State have added a longtime NFL assistant to its staff.
It was announced late Friday morning that PSU has added former Ravens quarterbacks coach James Urban to the staff as an offensive analyst.
Urban, a native of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, spent the previous six seasons with John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens, five of which were as the QB coach.
In Baltimore, Urban was Lamar Jackson’s quarterbacks coach for his first five seasons in the NFL. He  spent last season in a senior football analyst/game planning role. Before Baltimore, Urban coached receivers with the Bengals from 2011-17, helping A.J. Green become a perennial pro bowler. Before Cincinnati, Urban was on Andy Reid’s staff for seven seasons in Philadelphia. He started as an assistant to the head coach from 2004-06, going to the Super Bowl in his first season. He worked the 2007-08 seasons as offensive quality control coach before being promoted to QBs coach in 2009. In 2010, Urban helped Michael Vick to a Comeback Player of the Year Award campaign, then moved onto Cincinnati.
Urban does have experience coaching at the college level, but never at a Power Four school.
He was at Penn— not Penn State— from 1999-2003, spending his first season as Director of Football Administration and the last four as Director of Football Operations.
His first coaching stop was also in Pennsylvania, working as a graduate assistant at Clairon from 1997-98.
Urban played his college football at Division III Washington & Lee, located in Lexington, Virginia. He played receiver and returned kicks for the generals.
We’ll see what type of impact this move has on Penn State QBs Drew Allar, Beau Pribula, Ethan Grunkemeyer and Jaxon Smolik.
