Penn State Adding Albany Head Coach, Nittany Lion Alum Greg Gattuso to Jim Knowles’ Defensive Coaching Staff

Jim Knowles has added another member to his Penn State defensive coaching staff. Greg Gattuso is leaving Albany after 11 seasons as the team’s head coach to become a defensive line consultant with the Nittany Lions, his alma mater, he told reporters on Wednesday.

A Pittsburgh native, Gattuso played defensive line at Penn State from 1981 to 1983, winning a national championship in his second year with the program. It was also with the Nittany Lions that Gattuso began his coaching career, as a graduate assistant in 1984.

Gattuso has deep ties to the East Coast and specifically Pennsylvania, where he’s had various high school and college coaching gigs. Gattuso served as Duquesne’s head coach from 1993 to 2004 and was an assistant at Pittsburgh and Maryland before joining the Great Danes in 2014.

Gattuso is two seasons removed from leading Albany to an 11-4 record and an FCS semifinal appearance in 2023. He joins Brent Zdebski and Shane Eachus, a pair of analysts, as the third addition to Knowles’ staff since he was hired as Penn State’s defensive coordinator on Jan. 27.