{"id":409279,"date":"2026-01-15T18:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409279\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:41:08","slug":"after-brief-departure-to-virginia-tech-an-analyst-is-returning-to-penn-state-with-a-new-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409279\/","title":{"rendered":"After brief departure to Virginia Tech, an analyst is returning to Penn State with a new title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State football is bringing former special teams analyst Matt Colangelo back to State College with a new title. Colangelo will be the Nittany Lions\u2019 assistant special teams coordinator in 2026. He previously left the program to follow James Franklin to Virginia Tech<\/a>. However, his tenure in Blacksburg<\/a> was short. It\u2019s unclear how long he was even with the Hokies. But, it was long enough for the program to create a new staff member page that has since been deleted.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that a different special teams analyst from the 2025 staff, Allen Tucker, is no longer listed on the Lions\u2019 support staff page. <\/p>\n

Colangelo joined the Penn State staff in 2025 to work under then-second-year special teams coordinator Justin Lustig<\/a>, who will be back for a third season in 2026, and his first under Matt Campbell<\/a>. Formerly Villanova\u2019s special teams coordinator, Franklin said in September before the Lions hosted the Wildcats that Colangelo was \u2018doing a great job for us.\u2019 <\/p>\n

A Cromwell, Conn., native, Colangelo has also coached at Yale. Here is more info from previous BWI reporting on Colangelo:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary recruiting territory for Colangelo consists of New England, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont,\u201d\u00a0his Villanova bio says<\/a>. \u201cHe also recruits several of the local high schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cColangelo coached three players who earned CAA Football All-Conference honors for the 2023 season, including strong safety Ty Trinh who had his best collegiate season to date and garnered his first career All-CAA nod as a second team selection. Trinh made 46 tackles a season ago, including three tackles for loss, and defended six passes with five breakups and one interception.\u201d<\/p>\n

An early Penn State special teams outlook for the 2026 season<\/p>\n

Considered one of the sport\u2019s top special teams coordinators, Lustig is a big keep for Campbell. His Penn State special teams were No. 1 in ESPN\u2019s FPI special teams efficiency rankings for the 2025 season. Lustin will now oversee Colangelo and Rory Walling<\/a>, a\u00a0former All-Big 12 special teams player at Iowa State. He follows Campbell from Ames as a special teams assistant, which is the same role he held there last year. <\/p>\n

The group has its placekicker in the ultra-consistent Ryan Barker<\/a>. It needs a new kickoff specialist and punter to replace Gabe Nwosu<\/a>. James Madison transfer Cristiano Rosa is now at Penn State to perform the former job<\/a>. And Mississippi State transfer Nathan Tiyce<\/a> is now on campus to compete with second-year Nittany Lion Matthew Parker <\/a>and Class of 2026 commit Lucas Tenbrock<\/a> for the latter job. <\/p>\n

Lustig and co., will also need to hold competitions to find their kick and punt returners during spring practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State football is bringing former special teams analyst Matt Colangelo back to State College with a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-409279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}