UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Football head coach James Franklin has named Justin Lustig as the team’s new special teams coordinator, outside linebackers and nickels coach. Lustig spent the previous three seasons at Vanderbilt.
“We are thrilled to welcome Justin, his wife, Beth, and sons, Samuel and Henry, to our Penn State Football family,” said Franklin. “I have followed Justin’s career closely and have been thoroughly impressed with the way his special teams units have consistently performed. He’s spent 19 seasons as a special teams coordinator and also brings valuable experience from a very successful stint as a head coach. Justin is a Pennsylvania guy who will fit in well within our organization and this Happy Valley community.”
“Growing up in Pennsylvania I have long held the Penn State program as the gold standard of college football,” said Lustig. “My family and I are incredibly excited for this opportunity to come back to our home state and join this historic program. I want to thank Coach Franklin for this opportunity to join the Penn State Football staff. I’m eager to get to work with this remarkable staff and community.”
Lustig, a 2022 Broyles Award nominee as the nation’s top assistant coach, served the previous two seasons as associate head coach and special teams coordinator at Vanderbilt, while also coaching the tight ends. Lustig was promoted from assistant head coach following the 2021 season.
Lustig was instrumental in the development of special teams during his Vanderbilt tenure. The 2023 and 2022 seasons saw Vanderbilt rank 41st and 44th, respectively, in ESPN’s Special Teams Efficiency. He inherited a special teams unit ranked outside the top 100 in FBS in 2020, the season before his arrival. As a team in 2023, Vanderbilt was one of 20 programs in the country to block multiple punts and finished 11th nationally in net punting.
During his career, Lustig has mentored 53 all-conference selections, including the 2018 Lou Groza Award recipient Andre Szmyt at Syracuse, 2023 Ray Guy Award finalist Matthew Hayball and two-time All-SEC long snapper Wesley Schelling with the Commodores.
Prior to his time at Vanderbilt, Lustig spent four seasons at Syracuse where he guided the special teams, and also had stops…
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