Penn State Football: Seider Happy, Which Counts for Something in Hectic Coaching World

ATLANTA — If you want to know how valuable a coach is, just look at his title after a few years at the same job. Take for example Penn State assistant coach Ja’Juan Seider. Boiled down to the most basic level, he is best known as Penn State’s running backs coach. But technically, if we’re getting specific, his responsibilities and titles are [inhales] assistant head coach/co-offensive coordinator and running backs.

That’s the sort of thing you get when you’re six years into your time somewhere, have continued to help produce quality running backs on a regular basis and are an asset on the recruiting trail. Do your job well, and in theory, you should be rewarded for it.

In his sixth season at Penn State, Seider finds himself as James Franklin’s second-longest tenured assistant behind Terry Smith, who is fittingly enough also adorned with his own collection of titles and responsibilities.

And that lends itself to wondering, how long is Seider going to stick around? It’s not that he wants to leave, but it’s an unavoidable aspect of success. People will come calling and eventually that might lead to even bigger titles and responsibilities.

“[I don’t think you] get into this profession and the only thing you wanted to be was an assistant coach, [but there’s] nothing wrong with [that being what happens]. Also nothing wrong if I never become a head coach,” Seider said on Wednesday during Penn State’s Peach Bowl preparations. “I feel like I’m close with Coach Franklin and the roles I get to play, and [James] has never taken me for granted. He’s elevated me; he pushed me past my comfort zone. These last few weeks was pushing [me] past [my] comfort zone.

“So to me, if this is the pinnacle, it is pretty damn good. And I don’t take that for granted, I get to truly do something I love … I’ve been around this game my whole life and I get to be at a place like Penn State and like I said, if I’m done in a few years once I leave here, it has been a hell of a ride.”

Maybe Seider is just playing it coy. The coaching carousel moves quickly, but maybe a life growing up around coaches in his family has also turned him on to the secrets of stability, Seider having made seven stops from 2001 until landing at Penn State in 2018. There’s something to be said for being a head coach. There’s also something to be said for not being one. Seider might want a taste of that one day, but it might also not be lost on him that both defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and incoming defensive coordinator Tom Allen both expressed a shared joy of the moment when all the head coaching responsibilities were someone else’s problems. Diaz is obviously headed back to a world where everything is his problem, but Seider might not be that eager.

Whatever the case might be, Seider certainly seems happy, and that might count for more than anything else. The pull might be too hard one day to resist, but for now there are worse things than winning games, coaching running backs and getting a good night of sleep.

“Winning helps that because you’re at a place where if you win you’re gonna stick around and it’s high production, low maintenance. You’re talking about a running back room being high production, low maintenance,” Seider said. We’re gonna lose some kids. You’re gonna miss on some kids and some kids — it’s hard here, this is the place where it’s not going to be easy. The demand that it takes to be a Penn State football player is hard. The culture here makes it easy because we don’t have to deal with a lot of the BS outside … so that part of it is refreshing. I’ve been places every night you want to know if you’re gonna get a late night phone call, [but at Penn State] you can go to sleep and turn your ringer off and feel good about it. So I think those things are important and leadership, you know, top to bottom from Coach Franklin to [Athletic Director] Pat Kraft.”

And to be fair, if you have all those things, maybe you don’t need another title.