New York Post

Giants hire Penn St. coach to run D-Line

- By PAUL SCHWARTZ

Joe Judge’s first staff with the Giants is shaping up and the first-year head coach looked to the college ranks to secure his defensive line coach, hiring Sean Spencer from Penn State, The Post confirmed.

Spencer worked with the Nittany Lions defensive linemen since 2014. He was given added responsibi­lities in 2018 as the associate head coach and run game coordinato­r in State College under James Franklin. Before that, Spencer coached the defensive line for Franklin at Vanderbilt.

Spencer, 49, is from Hartford and was a high school teammate of former Jets coach Eric Mangini. Spencer worked his way up the coaching ladder at Trinity, UMass, Holy Cross, Villanova, Hofstra and Bowling Green before landing at Vanderbilt. In 2015, he helped Carl Nassib set the Penn State single-season record with 15.5 sacks on a defensive line dubbed “Wild Dogs.’’ Spencer is known as “Coach Chaos.’’

Judge hired Patrick Graham, a former defensive line coach, as the Giants defensive coordinato­r, and it looks as if the position coaches on defense are all set.

With the Giants, Spencer inherits some interestin­g young pieces. Dexter Lawrence had a solid rookie season and Dalvin Tomlinson is an establishe­d young veteran in the middle. The Giants hope Spencer gets to work with Leonard Williams, acquired in a trade with the Jets last season.

Williams can hit free agency and general manager Dave Gettleman is confident he can get a deal done before Williams hits the open market.

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