After a rough 2025 season, which saw them go just 3-9 with one win in ACC play, Syracuse is making changes to its football coaching staff, and one of the additions has roots at Penn State.

Former Penn State defensive line coach John Scott Jr. is joining Fran Brown at Syracuse as an assistant head coach, defensive line coach, and defensive run game coordinator, per Pete Thamel on X.

He replaces former Penn State offensive lineman and graduate assistant Elijah Robinson, who was demoted from defensive coordinator after the season ended, before leaving for Texas A&M. Despite this, he won’t be the only coach on the staff with Penn State connections, as offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon grew up in State College and played on the football team before starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1997.

Scott Jr. played collegiately at Western Carolina from 1995-98 before a brief arena and Canadian football career. He began his coaching career in 2001, bouncing around the FCS and FBS as a defensive line coach before getting his first Power Five gig at Texas Tech in 2013. He worked for the New York Jets from 2015-16 in multiple roles before returning to college to take the defensive line coach job at Arkansas in 2017 and then South Carolina in 2019.

He was hired as James Franklin’s defensive line coach in February 2020 and served in the role for three seasons, additionally picking up the role of defensive run game coordinator in 2022. In his time at Penn State, he worked with future NFL draft picks Odafe Oweh and Shaka Toney, as well as multi-year starter and team captain PJ Mustipher.

He left Penn State in 2023 to take the same job for the Detroit Lions, but only lasted one year in the role and has been out of coaching since. Current defensive line coach Deion Barnes succeeded Scott Jr. at Penn State in 2023 and remains in the role to this day.