In a reformed closet-turned-office in State College, Pa., Joe Brady began concocting his offense.



They called it the GA Tank, a tiny space sandwiched between the offensive and defensive staff areas so both sides could easily access it. Penn State coach James Franklin morphed it into an office space using four side-by-side cubicles with three to four feet between each with a blinder.



And in that room, often on offdays or late at night after everyone left, fellow graduate assistant Andrew “AJ” Jackson would enter the GA Tank to find a 25-year-old Brady on the computer drawing up his own playbook. He was a first-year graduate assistant, essentially a nobody in this Big Ten world, and in his own time he’d see something on film or come up with an idea and draw it up.



Jackson, now the defensive line coach at James Madison, has worked at six schools in his career. At that point, he and the other two GAs were grinding to become position coaches.