Ja’Juan Seider’s Leap: Why He Left Penn State for Notre Dame & the Challenges Ahead
Ja’Juan Seider didn’t have plans to leave Penn State when the season came to an end.
He was also open to leaving Happy Valley if the right opportunity arose. Enter Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame.
“It was never easy,” Seider said of his decision to leave Penn State. “You've been in a place seven years. The type of room we had built at Penn State, the culture with those kids, it is timing, right? It is never the right time. There's never a bad time.
“We talked about it as a family. It was just like, 'You say no every year.' You also don't want to also be complacent either. It was Notre Dame. It was Marcus Freeman. We built a relationship 14 years ago when we were young coaches in this profession through Gerad Parker, who used to be here.”
Even knowing Freeman, the decision wasn’t something he took lightly, and as mentioned, the Seider family took time to go over the pros and cons of moving to South Bend.
“I tell my wife sometimes it's like talking to myself,” explained Sieder. “I talk to him like I'm talking to myself. We just stayed in touch. We just stayed in touch. We always said it had to take something special for us to leave, right? Whether it's a head coach or coordinator position, there were some chances with some NFL teams, but when this opportunity came, we thought hard about it. We turned the phone off for a couple days. The only person we really talked to was Marcus a little bit here and there.
“We just said it was time to do something different. Go challenge yourself, go walk in different shoes. I felt comfortable doing that because at the end of the season last year, when I met with my two kids that came back, I told them, 'Do not come back to Penn State for me. Make sure if you come back, you come back for your own selfish reasons. Or you leave for your own selfish reasons, I'll support you in any manner I can.'”
Seider eventually agreed to leave his comfort zone and accept the Notre Dame job. The moment he first stepped on campus was revealing for Seider as he immediately knew it was the right move.
“When I got here it was first class,” stated Seider. “When you come on this campus, you feel Notre Dame. Whatever it is, I don't know what it is, how to explain it, but it just felt different. You walk different, you talk different, you stand up different, you sit different.
“I just think it's from the top, meeting with Father Bob (Dowd), meeting with Sarge (Adam Sargent) in academics, me with Freeman and him coming to pick us up from the airport. It was just first class. You understand why now. You feel the why of Notre Dame. It is special and that's why it's only one Notre Dame.”
Penn State was set to return one of the best running back rooms in the country in Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Singleton ran for 1,099 yards and 12 scores, while Allen finished with 1,108 yards and eight touchdowns.
Seider will now step into a room with the nation’s best running back in Jeremiyah Love and depth that rivals the Nittany Lions.
One of Seider’s strengths as a coach is finding ways to play multiple backs, which is something Deland McCullough thrived at doing.
How does one create a room where multiple backs can play? You build depth and coach each kid hard.
“I always believed you coach the bottom of your roster no different than you coach the top of your roster,” Seider explained. “That's how you build depth. Your fifth can become your one. You've got to prepare like that throughout the week. I always believed throughout the weeks in season that you have to try to get four guys ready. It's hard to get five and six guys ready, but have four guys in a rotation where they can learn, they can have a process to be ready to play in the game because there's injuries. We play a physical game. We are the one position where every play somebody's trying to hit you.
“We have to have guys ready and willing to adapt to be able to get to the championship, which Notre Dame did. You've got to have depth.”
Seider saw Notre Dame’s depth at multiple positions firsthand in the Orange Bowl. Love was a shell of himself, but Seider also saw the depth on the defensive side of the ball. He saw the talent, but also the culture Freeman had developed, which prevented a drop off.
“Injuries happen,” Seider said. “I thought one of the greatest things to go play against this team last year from my offensive point of view, they had a lot of injuries and you never knew the difference who was in the game. Whether a guy got injured or this guy had been playing all year. That's a testament to this program and what Coach Freeman built.”
The spring will be important for Seider and the Notre Dame backs. Both sides will be feeling each other out. Sieder will need to find where this group can grow and earn the trust of his players.
One area you can expect growth in is the mental side of the game and pass pro. Seider, a former college quarterbacks, will bring a unique perspective in the way he sees the game to the running back room.
“I think my value is going to be able to come with the running backs and be able to teach them how quarterbacks see the game,” explained Seoider. “We're always talking in our room about playing from the neck up just like quarterbacks. You see safety rotations that kind of tell you what the defense doing; the progression of 'Hey, it's going to be Cover 2, spin to Cover 3, whatever.' Being able to teach the backs to see that it's going to allow them to play smarter, right?
“We are already talented enough in that room so if we can play from the neck up, can anticipate the front changes from three-down to four-down or a blitz or an ID changes; now the shade goes away, the five-technique comes inside. Being able to teach those kids that and make them understand it, now we've got a chance to be maybe a little bit more explosive in the area where we wasn't because maybe they wouldn't train that way.”
And don’t think Seider hasn’t already started to challenge his room.
“I want to know what they do not do well,” said Seider. “I want to know the weakness, so I can help them grow in that area. One thing I told them after we broke this morning, 'I'd like for you guys to text me three to five things individually that you want to grow in that area.' A lot of times when you get that information, you may design a drill that can help; it may be contact balance, it may be hand placement and protection, but you are only going to know your blind spots if you really recognize them and you own it.”
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