One of Linebacker U.’s finest products is taking his experience to another Pennsylvania school. Dan Connor, Penn State’s all-time leading tackler, was announced as West Chester’s new linebackers coach yesterday.

“I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be joining the West Chester University family,” Connor said in the press release. “I volunteered with the squad in the spring, and I knew right away that I wanted to be a part of this program.”

Connor was a bulldozer during his Nittany Lion days. He totaled 419 tackles from 2004-07, 12 of which came in an incredible performance in the 2007 Notre Dame win. The First Team All-American and Bednarik Award Winner was selected in the third round of the 2008 NFL Draft 74th overall, and he bounced from the Carolina Panthers to the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants before hanging up his cleats. He started in 27 NFL games, accumulating 216 tackles along the way.

While West Chester isn’t a Division I program, it’s very respectable in Division II. The Golden Rams finished 13-2 last season before their season ended in the playoffs’ semifinals, and two of their players (including a linebacker) were ranked among the top 100 in the country by d2football.com.

“We are extremely happy to find someone with Dan’s background playing the linebacker position,” head coach Bill Zwaan said. “He will get immediate respect from our group of linebackers, who have a ton of experience. We couldn’t have found a better guy to fit our linebacker coaching situation right now.”

Congrats to the Lion on the new position!