Two more PSU assistants added, according to reports

DAILY NEWS STAFF
Posted: January 11, 2012

Penn State coach Bill O'Brien has reportedly added two more names to complete his staff.

South Carolina special teams coach John Butler will join the Nittany Lions, although his role is likely as the defensive backs coach, and New England Patriots offensive assistant George Godsey will be the quarterbacks coach, according to several reports.

O'Brien and Penn State have only confirmed Larry Johnson among the nine assistants now reported to be on O'Brien's staff.

Butler was at South Carolina for one season after spending four seasons at Minnesota as the linebackers and special teams coach. He also previously coached at Harvard as the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator; at Southwest Texas State as the safties coach and special teams coordinator; and at Catholic as the secondary coach while he played as a senior and then the defensive coordinator.

Butler's units were among the best in the Big Ten while he was at Minnesota, but struggled with the Gamecocks. South Carolina was eighth in the SEC in punt returns and seventh in the conference in kickoff returns.

Godsey joined the Patriots staff in February after 7 years at Central Florida, including four as the quarterbacks coach. Godsey played at Georgia Tech, where O'Brien was his offensive coordinator and position coach as a senior in 2001.

Like O'Brien, Godsey would presumably not join Penn State full-time until the Patriots are eliminated from the NFL playoffs.

Other than holdovers Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden, Butler is the only new coach without an obvious tie to O'Brien from Georgia Tech or Duke. His connection seems to be to new defensive coordinator Ted Roof. Roof was the defensive coordinator at Minnesota in 2008 when Butler was on the Gophers' staff.

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