Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1495456
1 0 A P R I L 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State players erupted in ap- plause when they learned at a team meeting in the Lasch Building on March 13 that Deion Barnes would be the Nittany Lions' new defensive line coach. PSU announced the hire publicly later that day, and the reaction from football alumni and the team's fan community mirrored that of the current players and coaches. Barnes, a three-year letterwin- ner at defensive end during his playing career at Penn State and a member of the team's support staff for the past three seasons, was lauded as exactly the right fit for his alma mater following John Scott Jr.'s decision in early March to ac- cept an assistant coaching position with the Detroit Lions. Scott himself was among the people who celebrated Barnes' promotion. "Super excited for this guy," he tweeted. "Penn State hired a great one." In a news release following the an- nouncement that he was being elevated, Barnes said he was "thrilled and honored to be the defensive line coach for my alma mater." "I have a lot of pride and passion for Penn State University," he added. "I am excited to go to work with this coaching staff, this team, my letterman brothers and the best fans in college football." Barnes, 30, is a position coach for the first time at the college level. Following his graduation in 2015, the Philadelphia native spent two years in the NFL and in 2019 was part of a short-lived spring football startup, the Alliance of Ameri- can Football. He returned to Penn State as a gradu- ate assistant in 2020 and moved into an analyst role earlier this year. Barnes was only in that latter job for a few weeks when Penn State promoted him to his new role as a position coach. To fill the vacancy, head coach James Franklin conducted a 15-day search that was elongated by the university's spring break. Franklin decided after interview- ing "a ton of people" that Barnes was the right man for this job. "Deion has got his collegiate experience here at Penn State, and he's done a really good job of taking everything in and being very intentional about it," Franklin said. "I take time to meet with the GAs and analysts and give them my perspective on things that they should be doing. That's going to be important for their develop- ment. … Deion was actually doing a really good job of everything we talked about, taking it very seriously and being inten- tional, and adding things to his game." Franklin said he thought that Barnes' experience as a graduate assistant work- ing for defensive coordinators Brent Pry and Manny Diaz will help him transition into a position-coaching role. Pry was in charge of Penn State's defense when Barnes returned, while Diaz is preparing for his second season at the helm, hav- ing joined the Lions' staff when Pry left to become head coach at Virginia Tech in November 2021. LIONS CHOOSE DEION BARNES TO OVERSEE DEFENSIVE FRONT G R E G P I C K E L | G R E G . P I C K E L @ O N 3 . C O M NEWS & NOTES Barnes has made a quick ascent since returning to his alma mater in 2020, going from graduate assistant to analyst to position coach. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE