Earlier this offseason Penn State football hired Miami wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield to the same position on James Franklin’s coaching staff.

Stubblefield has been coaching wide receivers going back to 2007 when he became the wide receivers coach at Central Washington. Since then, he has bounced around with several different teams — Eastern Michigan, Illinois State, Central Michigan, New Mexico, Wake Forrest, Utah, Air Force, and Miami — gaining a large amount of experience.

Before his coaching days, he was a star wide receiver at Purdue. In four years at Purdue, he totaled 325 receptions for 3,629 yards and 21 touchdowns. He was named a consensus All-American in 2004, as well as first-team All-Big Ten. At the time he left Purdue, he had the record for the most receptions in NCAA history.

After his college career, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Carolina Panthers, then bouncing around between the CFL and NFL for the next four years.

Stubblefield is excited about the opportunity to coach in Happy Valley and he has been thinking about it for a long time.

“I’ve been familiar with this place as a player and as a coach,” Stubblefield said. “This is one of the best programs in the country. It has been like that for a while. This is a place that I have wanted to be at for as long as I have been in the Big Ten.”

He is all about the process of learning and and isn’t focused about his future job status. He is focused on being the current wide receivers coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

“I know that I am not ready to be an offensive coordinator,” said Stubblefield. “When I talk about the self-awareness of not going somewhere, I’m not going to. I am definitely not going to a place to be a wide receivers coach when I can be the wide receivers coach at one of the best programs in the country.”

Stubblefield will inherit a wide receiver group that will be without KJ Hamler, who declared for the 2020 NFL Draft. Inexperience is the theme when it comes to Penn State’s wide receiver room, which is made up of Jahan Dotson, Daniel George, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Mac Hippenhammer, and four incoming freshman — Keandre Lambert, Jaden Dottin, Parker Washington, and Malick Meiga.

No player receiver in that group other than Dotson had double-digit receptions this past season. Stubblefield’s playing experience should garner him instant credibility and respect, and should work well with an inexperienced group of players.

“I think you have somewhat of an instant impact because you’ve played the position,” Stubblefield said. “Being able to come into a room in a conference that you played in, that they know you played in, at least gives you some credibility so that the things you start to teach, they can say ‘I get it.'”