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The question was about keeping Phil Galiano on staff. The answer, perhaps tellingly, didn’t mention Phil Galiano at all.
Last Wednesday, Penn State coach James Franklin kept it vague when asked about his embattled special teams coordinator. Nine days later, the Nittany Lions were officially in the market for a replacement.
Galiano is no longer with the program, as Penn State posted the job opening for his position on Friday morning. He will head to the pros as an assistant special teams coach for the New Orleans Saints, according to ESPN.
“We are excited for Phil and his family. This is a tremendous opportunity for Phil to return to the NFL,” Franklin said in a statement. “We are very appreciative of Phil and everything he has done for our program over the last two years. We wish him nothing but success moving forward.”
Galiano will be the second assistant coach to be replaced this offseason, following the firing of wide receivers coach David Corley on Jan. 2.
Unlike Corley, Galiano stayed with the Lions to help close out their 2019 recruiting class, and he was involved in the start of winter workouts. But just like Corley, he’s out after just one season as an assistant coach in charge of an underperforming unit.
After a particularly damaging special teams performance in a narrow loss to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl, Franklin was blunt, saying the unit “was not up to our standards today. Wasn’t up to our standards all year long.”
Asked on Feb. 6 about Galiano’s status with the team, Franklin didn’t use his name in his answer.
“I have tremendous confidence in all of our coaches based on their experience, based on their background,” Franklin said. “And for me, I don’t make decisions just based on one area. It’s a body of work. … And for me it always comes down to, is this the right thing to do for our program long term? And is the investment that we’re making, are we going to get a return on that investment, and how long are we going to have to wait for that return on that investment?
“So for me, the guys that we have on our staff and the guys we have in our organization, we feel very confident (with). And again, there’s a lot of different paths and there’s a lot of different journeys to get there. Some guys are going to walk in and there’s going to be an immediate impact. And some guys it’s going to take a little bit more time. And I get that. And I understand that.
“But I’m a big believer (in) the men that we come to work with every single day. And that’s our players and that’s the coaches and that’s all of us.”
Galiano originally arrived at Penn State as a defensive consultant in 2017 and was promoted to special teams coordinator and assistant defensive line coach last winter when the NCAA allowed staffs to expand from nine full-time assistant coaches to 10. Special teams had previously been run by Charles Huff, who left for Mississippi State last January and is now on Alabama’s staff.
But despite some early success in the return game with KJ Hamler and DeAndre Thompkins, Penn State’s special teams were below average for much of the season.
Ironically, it wasn’t the true freshman kickers — Jake Pinegar and Rafael Checa — who struggled most, but many of the veterans. Standout punter Blake Gillikin was more erratic than usual. The return game dried up on both kickoffs and punts. The Lions failed to recover all three onside kicks attempted against them on the season. Penalties piled up.
And the capper came in the Citrus Bowl. In what was ultimately a 27-24 loss to Kentucky, special teams gaffes were responsible for as much as a 16-point swing in the first half alone.
The Lions botched a fake punt call on the opening drive of the game, handing a field goal to the Wildcats. They then surrendered a punt return touchdown to fall behind 10-0 all while missing two field goals of their own, one after a low snap and another on a low kick that was blocked.
“We’ll take a deep dive in it,” Franklin said the game. “We’ll ask tough questions to ourselves and we’ll look at everything, A through Z. We’ll look at everything. We’ll have tough conversations. We’ll do what we’ve got to do to get better.”
That now means finding a replacement. Last month, Penn State announced the hiring of Gerad Parker as wide receivers coach just eight days after Corley’s dismissal.
The timing for this search isn’t quite as crunched now that national signing day has passed. But spring practice begins in less than a month — March 13 — and the Lions have much to work on for 2019.