For the third time in four seasons, Penn State football is looking for a new defensive coordinator.
After the 2021 season, Brent Pry left for the Virginia Tech head coaching job.
Two offseasons later, Manny Diaz left for the head coaching job at Duke.
Now, after just one season, Tom Allen is moving on, taking the defensive coordinator position at Clemson.
Many were surprised by this, as coach James Franklin has made no secret that he’s against his assistants making lateral moves.
Nonetheless, that’s what’s happened here, and Allen’s time at Penn State turned out to be quite brief.
Now, the question is: who will Penn State get to replace him?
I’ll break this up into three categories.
IN-HOUSE CANDIDATES
Photo from Penn State Athletics: Anthony Poindexter
Anthony Poindexter, safeties coach/co-DC
If Penn State is to stay in house— something it hasn’t done since Pry succeeded Bob Shoop ahead of the 2016 season— Anthony Poindexter is probably the favorite. There were some who felt Poindexter, who has been Penn State’s safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator since 2021, was ready for promotion last offseason when Allen ended up getting the job. After another season that featured excellent safety play— including Jaylen Reed stepping up for the injured Kevin Winston Jr. and Zakee Wheatley becoming one of Penn State’s best defensive players by the end of the year— Poindexter’s stock is still solid.
With that said, Poindexter has already been passed over by James Franklin once, so who knows if the coach feels he’s ready. But Poindexter’s track record of safety development plus the respect his players have for him and the fact that he’s been a full-time defensive coordinator before (at Connecticut from 2014-16) make him a name to look at.
Dan Connor, defensive analyst/analytics coordinator
08 September 2007: Penn State LB Dan Connor (40) sacks Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen (7) while Chris Baker (93) and Jerome Hayes (5) also close in. Clausen was sacked 6 times in his first collegiate start. The Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 31-10 September 8, 2007 at Beaver Stadium in State College, PA.
To paraphrase Lin Manuel-Miranda when he was portraying Alexander Hamilton, Connor has “a lot of brains but no polish.”
Ok, the “no polish” part is probably unfair. Connor has been coaching for almost a decade, mainly at the high school and small college level. But as far as major college coaching experience goes, Connor has only three years of it, all of which as an analyst. His duties have increased over the years, and in 2024, he spent a lot of time helping Allen coach the linebackers and even was responsible for making defensive calls for most of the season. Starting in Week 4, Connor was the one who gave the signals, which MIKE linebacker Kobe King heard in his headset and would relay to the other 10 defenders.
Connor has the endorsement of at least one Penn State letterman.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I will be the first one to say this should be Dan Connor’s job,” former OL Landon Tengwall posted to X (formerly Twitter) Monday morning. “That cat is ready for it. He is a molder of men and he was one of the people who built Penn State to what it is today.”
Tom Allen is going to Clemson. There are some really intriguing options. I will be the first one to say this should be Dan Connor’s job. That cat is ready for it. He is a molder of men and he was one of the people who built Penn State to what it is today https://t.co/9hu3vCeSLw
— LandonTengwall (@landon_tengwall) January 13, 2025
Connor also happens to be one of the best players in Penn State history, winning the Chuck Bednarik Award (best defensive player) and being a consensus All-American in 2007. But is he ready to be a coordinator? That’s for Franklin to decide.
Deion Barnes, defensive line coach
Photo by Matt Lynn, Nittany Sports Now; Deion Barnes.
A name that doesn’t seem to be getting talked about much is Barnes, who has only been a full-time college coach for two seasons. But what makes Barnes a wild card is the fact that Franklin didn’t expect to hire him for his current job.
“I didn’t think I was going to hire him,” Franklin said at Big Ten Media Days in 2023. “A lot of times in coaching, you view guys; he was a player for me, a graduate assistant for me, and sometimes coaches feel like players have to leave and then come back.”
Then the interview happened, and Barnes crushed it.
“We interviewed him, and it was probably one of those interviews where you interview somebody to basically cover your bases,” Franklin said. “We interviewed him and a bunch of established college coaches and a bunch of established NFL coaches, and he blew them all away. He dominated the interview. From that point on, I started looking at Deion as a legit candidate for this position.”
An Unplanned Hire: How Deion Barnes ‘Blew Them All Away’ and Became the Penn State DL Coach
Since then, all Barnes has done is lead arguably college football’s best defensive line. Does he need more polish? Probably. But Barnes has surprised people— even Franklin— before. Maybe another one is in order?
THE OUTSIDERS
Jim Knowles, Ohio State DC
Wait, what? Could Penn State, a team that has lost 12 of its last 13 against Ohio State, really steal their defense coordinator? Well, maybe. It all depends on how much Pat Kraft is willing to pay, and if Ohio State would let PSU interview Knowles, who is coaching in the national title game Jan. 20.
A list of @AdamBreneman81 ‘s potential Penn State defensive coordinators👀 pic.twitter.com/EsNoggR62i
— State Media (@StateMediaPSU) January 13, 2025
Al Golden, Notre Dame DC
This one is less of a surprise than Knowles only because Golden played for Joe Paterno at Penn State. Since then, he’s become a Group of Five head coach, Power Five head coach, NFL assistant and, most recently, a major college DC. Golden and Notre Dame just broke Penn State’s heart in the Orange Bowl. Since it seems like head coach Marcus Freeman is staying, Al is part of a— pun fully intended— golden situation at Penn State. It would take a lot to get him to leave, but maybe Golden’s ties to Happy Valley will make him slightly less expensive than Knowles.
D’Anton Lynn
Another Penn State guy who is coaching elsewhere. At 35, Lynn is an up and comer, but he already has plenty of polish. Lynn was UCLA’s DC in 2023 and did well enough there to go to LA’s more prominent program the next year. In 2024, USC had the 56th-ranked scoring defense and the 77th scoring defense. That doesn’t seem great. But compared to 2023, when it ranked 121st in scoring defense and 119th in total defense (out of 133 FBS teams), it was much-improved. Lynn is a rising star who still doesn’t have a ton on his resume relative to guys like Diaz and Allen. But he’s young, scrappy and hungry (another Hamilton reference). Maybe he deserves a shot (ok, promise I’m done now).
THE WILDCARD
Pat Fitzgerald, former Northwestern head coach
Hmm. Fitzgerald has never been a coordinator and hasn’t coached anywhere since a wild firing after the 2022 season. He’s only 50, so it’s hard to think he’ll be in coaching exile forever. Could Franklin and Penn State serve as “coaching rehab” for him? It’s a thought. But Fitzgerald’s lack of experience as a full time DC plus the circumstances of his departure might make it a long shot.
Penn State begins the 2025 season against Nevada Aug. 30 at Beaver Stadium.
