There and Back Again, Former Nittany Lion Matt Zanellato Returns to Beaver Stadium as UMass Assistant

Life has been a whirlwind for UMass receivers’ coach Matt Zanellato. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but consider the following: Zanellato played for three head coaches in college, enduring the brunt of the most turbulent period of time in Penn State football history. Then when his playing career ended so began the grind of coaching, changing jobs on a near annual basis as he climbs a volatile ladder.

Of course before the coaching could start Zanellato had to hang up the jersey of the first dream – continuing to play football. Even if he wasn’t the fixture of Penn State’s offense while in State College he still had worked his way to being a letterman at one of the nation’s most accomplished college football programs. It can be hard to stop doing the only thing you’ve ever known. It’s hard to say that this is it and move on to what’s next. But that’s what Zanellato did, but not without a chat first.

“I went back and forth with that, actually,” Zanellato said on Thursday reflecting on the end of his playing career. “I reached out to Coach [Bill] O’Brien and caught up with him after the two years he’d been gone and kind of went through my career. And [the decision to go into coaching] was kind of based off some advice I got from him. There have been times where I was like, I think I could at least had opportunity to be a special teamer in the NFL. But at the same time I was very fortunate to get in with the right type of people early on in my coaching profession, and kind of work my way up the ranks that way.”

Working is the operative word here – Zanellato’s resume is a litany of different programs, starting first with a connection he got from former Penn State receivers’ coach Josh Gattis, a job as a graduate assistant and running backs coach for current UMass Offensive Coordinator Steve Casula at Davenport University during their inaugural football season. Casula had worked as an analyst under Gattis while the two were at Michigan.

From there it was Western Michigan, then Lock Haven University, then Saginaw Valley State University, eventually Zanellato would link back up Casula, joining UMass in January 2022 before being promoted to wide receivers coach in June 2023.

“The nomadic coaching lifestyle is not for the faint of heart,” Zanellato said with a laugh. “When I was at Lock Haven, I got a call and was offered the job at Saginaw, I was talking to the head coach on Saturday and he was like we need you here by Monday and we started spring ball on Thursday. So I was packing up my car and driving a car’s worth of stuff out to Saginaw, Michigan to live out of my car for about a month before I officially moved out. Then when I got hired at UMass I got offered a job the day after Christmas, and I was driving out to Massachusetts about a week later.”

“I made myself a goal when I first started coaching, I wanted to be a D1 wide receiver coach by the time I turned 30. And then when COVID hit, I was like okay I’ll give myself until 31 – give myself a COVID season,” Zanellato said. “And then it was actually the weekend I turned 30 was the week that I got named interim wide receiver coach and I was officially named wide receiver’s coach. Kind of divine timing.”

Now with just a bit of stability Zanellato gets many of the things he longed for in college. A former Joe Paterno commitment, Zanellato is now working with UMass head coach Don Brown, an icon of defensive football and a mid 2010s staple of Big Ten football after time served as Michigan’s defensive coordinator. Penn State coach James Franklin has long spoken highly of Brown’s pedigree and while he might not have the cache of Paterno, Brown does fill the role of veteran and legendary coach nicely in Zanellato’s life.

“Coach Brown is an absolute legend,” Zanellato said. “He’s an unbelievable head coach and boss. I love working for him. I tell people that all the time when they ask what it’s like working with him. Very rarely in this profession do you hear so many things about someone, so many good things about someone and then you go work for them [and find out] they’re all true. He has exceeded those expectations.”

Then again…..

“But he coaches the corners. So it’s the receivers versus his guys during practice and if the receivers are doing well practice, he’s not too happy,” Zanellato added jokingly. “So my guys are gonna get tested all the time.”

Back to the business of home, Zanellato has been to Beaver Stadium once or twice since graduating but nothing will be quite as surreal as stepping onto the sidelines this Saturday as an assistant coach. A perpetual supporter of Penn State there is the irony of Zanellato trying to ruin his alma mater’s day, but when push comes to shove he and his receivers have a job to do. Does it mean pulling off the biggest upset of the college football season so far? Sure, but that upset doesn’t start without belief. And as one of the most explosive teams in college football, it’s not as though Zanellato’s receivers don’t know how to move the ball.

“All the players and people around the building all weekend, they keep saying ‘I know you’re heading home’ because obviously anybody that works with me understands how much love I still have for Penn State,” Zanellato said. “I’m very excited to be back in Beaver Stadium. Honestly, I always made the joke that I had the dream to be coaching a game at Beaver Stadium but in those dreams I was on [the home] sideline. But at the same time I will take our sideline on Saturday. Once that ball gets kicked off it’s just another [game].”