Longtime FCS head coach Danny Rocco is joining Penn State's staff in an off-field role, head coach James Franklin announced Monday. The announcement came as the Nittany Lions prepared to begin their 2022 spring practices.
Rocco, 61, spent 16 seasons as a head coach at the FCS level. His first job came at Liberty in 2006, where in six seasons he went 47-20 and won four Big South championships. Rocco took the Richmond job in 2011 and immediately shared a CAA title. His final three Spider teams reached the FCS playoffs, advancing to the semifinals in 2015.
Rocco took the Delaware job in 2017 and reached the playoffs twice in five seasons, including a semifinal appearance and a CAA crown in the spring 2021 campaign.
Rocco was let go following a 5-6 campaign in the fall of 2021. Overall, he is 121-65 in 16 seasons as a head coach across three institutions. Rocco's 121 wins places him to the top of the Penn State staff, outpacing Franklin's 91 victories in 11 seasons at Vanderbilt and PSU.
A Huntingdon, Pa., native, Rocco played linebacker for Joe Paterno for two years out of high school before transferring to Wake Forest. The Penn State appointment marks his first time to don the blue and white across a near 40-year career.
The Penn State job will be Rocco's first non-head coaching role since he was Virginia's linebackers coach from 2001-05.
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