Who is Stan Drayton? James Franklin's new coach staff member at Penn State

James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions have hired a new running backs coach after Ja'Juan Seider left the team to become the running backs coach at Notre Dame.

Penn State was linked to DeMarco Murray, the former NFL running back and Oklahoma Sooners running back coach. But, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Penn State hired former Temple coach Stan Drayton to be the school's running backs coach on a one-year deal.

"Sources: Stan Drayton has signed a deal to become the next running backs coach at Penn State. He’s the former head coach at Temple and is a veteran NFL and college running back coach," Thamel reported.

Drayton was the coach of the Temple Owls from 2022 to 2024. He went 9-25 as the coach and was fired with two games left in the 2024 season.

Before becoming a head coach at Temple, he served as the running backs coach at Ohio State, Florida, Syracuse, Tennessee and Mississippi State, as well as being the Chicago Bears running backs coach.

Penn State and James Franklin wanted the best coach possible

Penn State Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said the school needed to hire the best running backs coach possible. Franklin held a press conference and said he was looking to hire the best candidate possible, and there was a list of potential names.

“We got to go out and get the very best candidate we can,” Penn State coach James Franklin said at a press conference about finding his next running backs coach, via on3. “And again, there’s a list that’s probably not as deep as people think of candidates that can come to Penn State.

"In hiring, in my mind, it’s about, how are you going to get a return on your investment. And what I mean by that is, there are some young guys that you can hire that are on an upward trajectory and are going to have really good careers, but you may not get the return on your investment until Year 2."

Ultimately, Penn State ended up hiring Dayton who will coach Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen in 2025.