Nittany Lions defensive line coach John Scott walked long road to Penn State

Not long after John Scott Jr. graduated from Western Carolina in 1999, he had a difficult time separating from football.

Penn State’s first-year defensive line coach tried the indoor version of the game, spending one season playing for the soon-to-be defunct Greensboro (N.C.) Prowlers of AF2. He also crossed the border to play briefly for the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes.

Finally, he took his degree in communications from Western Carolina and taught English to sophomores and juniors and was an assistant football coach at West Davidson High School in Lexington, N.C.

“I decided I loved the coaching part and hated the teaching part of it,” said Scott, who grew up in Greer, S.C. “Seventeen- and 18-year-olds at that time could solve all the problems in the world. That drove me nuts. So, I decided to get out of teaching.”

By that time, Scott had made up his mind to solve simpler problems — the ones faced by college and pro teams. He reached out to Brent Pry, then the defensive coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette, and spent two seasons there as a graduate assistant.

Pry, who is Penn State’s defensive coordinator, was Scott’s line coach at Western Carolina. Pry taught Scott the proper techniques that led him to record 31 career tackles for a loss. More importantly, he showed Scott how to impact the lives of others.

“Coach Pry and I are like family. He’s a big reason why I decided to get into coaching,” Scott said Thursday. “I enjoyed the way he coached me, with his energy, his passion, his knowledge of the game. If he was able to impact me in one year, that’s what I want to be able to do. Impact young men.”

Penn State is Scott’s 11th stop since 2001, most recently coaching in the SEC where he was at South Carolina last season and Arkansas in 2017 and ‘18. He has also been on staffs of the New York Jets, Texas Tech, Western Carolina and Georgia Southern (where Pry was his boss for one season).

Now, he’s overseeing 21 Penn State defensive linemen while finding a way to replace the 15 TFLs (9½ sacks) recorded by defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, who was the Carolina Panthers’ second-round draft choice last week.

Scott replaced Sean Spencer, who spent nine seasons with coach James Franklin at Vanderbilt and Penn State.

Scott has yet to see any of his players wear pads, however. Penn State had no spring drills before the pandemic, creating a special challenge for all four first-year members of coach James Franklin’s staff.

Scott has been busy, however.

He has met with each player individually, plus made virtual contact with their parents and high school coaches.

“I was able to meet with the guys several times, as well as meet with them in winter workouts,” he said. “I got an opportunity in that way to learn their personalities and see them move around and see them work.”

He also watched plenty of Penn State game video.

“The eye in the sky doesn’t lie,” he said.

Scott hopes to build enough quality depth to give several linemen significant playing time to “keep guys fresh and keep hitting the O-line with wave after wave,” he said.

Although there are many questions to be answered this summer, Penn State’s initial depth chart shows junior P.J. Mustipher, 6-foot-4, 305 pounds, and graduate senior Antonio Shelton, 6-2, 315, as first-team tackles. Fifth-year senior Shaka Toney, 6-3, 236, and junior Jayson Oweh, 6-5, 257, lead the ends after they accumulated 6½ and five sacks, respectively, last season.

Toney looks like the leader of the group, on and off the field.

“The first time I met Shaka Toney, I was impressed with how good a teammate and how connected he is with the guys,” Scott said. “When you walk in that room, all the guys look up to Shaka. The way he plays and cares deeply about his teammates, his teammates look up to him.

“He has some strong leadership qualities. His ceiling can be pretty high.”