Blue White Illustrated

rise to a range of devastating NCAA sanc- tions. But he appreciated how the team and its new coach, Bill O'Brien, came to- gether and recommitted to their goals. "Unprecedented times can bring peo- ple together," Howle said. "I think the biggest thing is, we wanted to play for Penn State. You talk to anybody who played on those teams, and we love this place." Having witnessed Penn State's trans- formation back into a nationally promi- nent program, Howle said he's eager to help it stay the course. His opportunity to become a position coach may have arisen more suddenly than anticipated, but that doesn't mean he wasn't pre- pared for it. "The reason I came back here was for an opportunity like this," he said. "When I left Penn State as a player, it was always my goal to get back here as a coach. I always knew I wanted to coach. My dad was a high school coach for 30 years, so I knew I wanted to coach. This was my ultimate goal, to get back to a place that gave me so much, a great uni- versity like Penn State. Obviously, this is home for me. So that was my mindset going into last year. I wanted to prepare myself for this opportunity. Obviously, I didn't see it coming this quickly, but I tried to prepare every day like I was one of the position coaches. I think that ul- timately helped me to succeed and get the tight ends job here. It had always Anthony Poindexter, a College Football Hall of Famer, Super Bowl winner and coaching veteran with stops at Virginia, Connecticut and Purdue, has joined Penn State's coaching staff. Poindexter was announced as the team's new safeties coach and co-defen- sive coordinator on Feb. 24 after spending the past four seasons in a similar role with the Boilermakers. He replaces Tim Banks, who left in early Feb- ruary to become de- fensive coordinator at Tennessee. "We are excited to welcome Anthony to our staff," coach James Franklin said in a prepared statement. "He brings an impressive football background both as a player and a coach. As a player, he is a College Football Hall of Famer, a two- time consensus All-American and won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. During his 18-year coaching career, he has been a defensive coordinator and has worked in multiple Power Five confer- ences. Anthony's safeties have always played hard with a nose for the ball." In seven of his 18 seasons as a college coach, Poindexter has had either a defen- sive coordinator or co-defensive coordi- nator title, including three years as the DC at Connecticut (2014-16). At Purdue, he helped the safety duo of Navon Mosley and walk-on Brennan Thieneman finish second and fourth on the team, respec- tively, in tackles in 2018, while Thieneman finished second on the team with five sacks. A year later, Mosley and Thiene- man finished fourth and fifth, respec- tively, in tackles, and Thieneman was fourth in 2020. Thieneman went on to earn All-Big Ten honors three times (2017, 2018 and 2020), while Cory Trice also earned All-Conference laurels in 2020. In his first season in West Lafayette, Poindexter helped the Boilermaker de- fense improve by 17.7 points per game from the previous year, as opponents av- eraged only 20.5 points in 2017. Thiene- man and Mosely finished third and fifth on the team in tackles, respectively, and Thieneman secured Purdue's victory in the Foster Farms Bowl with an intercep- tion on Arizona's final drive. A native of Lynchburg, Va., Poindexter was also one of Purdue's key recruiters, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. While with the Boilermakers, he re- cruited multiple regions that are impor- tant to Penn State, including New York City, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. His arrival is expected to help Penn State address the DMV region, an area that had been overseen by Tyler Bowen before he left in January for a job in the NFL. Prior to his time at Purdue, Poindexter was the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Connecticut for three seasons. During the 2016 campaign, he coached safety Obi Melifonwu to All- League honors in the American Athletic Conference. Melifonwu paced the Huskies with 118 tackles, including 73 solo stops, and four interceptions. As a player, Poindexter was a two-time All-American at Virginia and the 1998 Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year. He finished his col- lege career with 342 tackles and was se- lected to the College Football Hall of Fame last year as a player. Poindexter tore his ACL during his senior season but was still chosen in the seventh round of the 1999 NFL Draft by Baltimore and was part of the Ravens' Super Bowl XXXV team. At Penn State, he'll inherit a position group that must replace two-year starter Lamont Wade but returns one of the Big Ten's top safeties in Jaquan Brisker, along with veteran backup Jonathan Sutherland. "I am honored and humbled by the op- portunity to be a part of the Penn State football program," Poindexter said. "As long as I've played the game of football, I've been aware of the longstanding tra- dition and history of excellence here at Penn State. I look forward to being under the leadership and guidance of Coach Franklin. I'm inspired by his re- lentless desire to win and I look forward F O O T B A L L Poindexter brings extensive resume to Penn State's staff POINDEXTER

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