Blue White Illustrated

January 2022

Penn State Sports Magazine

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2 2 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M a chance to play great defense. I think Penn State ticked all those boxes." For PSU, the feeling is mutual. The Nit- tany Lions have landed a well-respected play-caller with a similar style to help their defense take the next step. "Being able to go out and get the most experienced defensive coordinator that we could get" was a coup for the Nittany Lions, Franklin said. "The head coach ex- perience is a bonus. But [Diaz] was the most experienced defensive coordinator that we could get that came from a similar scheme background." For a while, it looked as though Di- az's arrival would be only one of several changes to the Nittany Lions' coaching staff. There were reports that Anthony Poindexter, Penn State's safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator, was under consideration for Virginia's head coaching post, which came available when Bronco Mendenhall announced that he would be stepping down after the Cavaliers' ap- pearance in the Fenway Bowl. Poindexter was an All-America safety for Virginia before getting into coaching. But the Cav- aliers ended up hiring Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott instead. Instability is, of course, a fact of life in college coaching. Indeed, some have al- ready wondered aloud how long Diaz's tenure with the Nittany Lions will last. One has to imagine that he would like to be a head coach again one day. But he made clear that the time for that isn't now. Further, he was as blunt as pos- sible when asked about his primary focus going forward: it's on helping the Nittany Lions improve in any way they can, he said. Diaz will first have to evaluate the roster to see what's working and what's not. He has a long track record of fielding strong defenses. That will be the expecta- tion Penn State fans have for him now, but it's also one that he clearly has for himself. "In terms of being a head coach mov- ing forward, that's the last thing on my mind right now," Diaz said. "There are some things about it that I'll miss, and there are some things about it that I cer- tainly won't miss. What I'm really excited about is coaching defensive football at Penn State University. That's really where all my focus is right now." ■ Diaz Will Look To Complement Nittany Lions' Recruiting Efforts When Penn State hired Manny Diaz to be its new defensive coordinator, it got more than an ex- perienced on-field tactician. It also got a dogged recruiter with ties to a part of the country in which the Nittany Lions want to have an ongoing presence. Penn State coordinators are road warriors when it comes to recruiting. They don't have to be quite as active as the other assistant coaches, but they do need to be able to recruit nationally and close the deal on campus or during in-home visits when that time comes. Diaz has a reputation as a hard-nosed recruiter. He received mixed reviews for his work at Miami, but it's unclear if that was because he was the head coach and didn't have a good enough staff around him or if there were other factors in play. But there is no question that too many good Florida players got away from the Hurricanes. All told, though, his recruiting background was good enough for Franklin's staff and should com- plement what the other assistants bring to the program. On3 senior national recruiting analyst Gerry Hamilton said Diaz will be an asset to Penn State. "He can read the recruiting room well," Hamilton said. "He's a versatile recruiter. Sure, he can help Penn State in the Southeast region, but he can go anywhere coast-to-coast and hold strong conver- sations and recruit." There are certainly differing perceptions of Diaz's work as a recruiter during his time at Miami, with some contending that he was more effective as an assistant than as a head coach. Penn State does not need him to recruit like a head coach, of course. It just needs him to do as well as he did when he was a defensive coordinator. "Manny was solid in his time as the head coach in recruiting. He was involved, and his staff re- cruited a lot of south Florida players hard, but too many got away," On3 director of recruiting Chad Simmons said. "I heard a lot more positives about him as a recruiter when he was at Mississippi State and Texas. Maybe it was because he had more time as a coordinator instead of being a head coach, but he had a lot of energy about him, and players were drawn to that. "Recruits and high school coaches have been drawn to his energy, his intensity and his knowledge on the defensive side of the ball, so I expect him to create a buzz with defensive recruits at Penn State." — Greg Pickel Anthony Poindexter was under consideration for the head coaching job at Virginia, his alma mater, but will return to Penn State for his second season on the staff. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL

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