Sunday Column: When It Comes To Coordinator Turnover, Franklin A Victim Of His Own Success

It’s hard to name more than a few Penn State players or coaches who have had better two-year runs than the departing Manny Diaz, who switched his job title from Nittany Lion defensive coordinator to Duke head coach this week.

Bill O’Brien comes to mind. Saquon Barkley (yes, he was here for three years but his 2016 and 2017 seasons were a considerable step up from his 2015 debut). Joe Moorhead, who directed the offenses in which Barkley flourished. Ki-Jana Carter in 1993-94.

The point is, it was a short but brilliant body of work, and it now leaves James Franklin in the familiar space of equal parts disappointment and opportunity. The odds aren’t great that Penn State will find someone better than Diaz for its next DC. But the same conditions that helped Diaz lead the Nittany Lions to some historic defensive numbers will at least make that possible.

When Diaz came to Penn State in 2022, he was a piping-if-not-scalding hot, probably overqualified candidate who was coming off a mostly ho-hum three-year stretch as Miami’s head coach following successful coordinating stints at Middle Tennessee, Mississippi State, Texas, and Louisiana Tech (plus the memorable, um, 17 days he spent as Temple’s head coach before accepting the Miami gig).

If Diaz had done nothing in college football between the time he was fired by the Hurricanes in December 2021 and today—coached his kids’ teams, gone backpacking through Europe, done a guest stint on “Days of our Lives”—he still would have been a solid head coaching candidate this cycle. By coming to State College and directing a pair of elite defenses during that period, though, he improved his résumé in a way he might not have been able to at too many other places.

Would Diaz’s aggressive style have played well at other Big Ten schools, or in conferences in which defenses are typically less proficient? Absolutely. But that style worked largely because of the athletes he had at every level of the defense—all of which found their way into enemy backfields at some point each week, it seemed—and because he had pass rushers like Chop Robinson and Adisa Isaac who could get blitz-level pressure on quarterbacks [italics]without[italics/] the Lions actually having to blitz.

Was Diaz’s ability to adjust and take the stuff that had worked (if only slightly) for opponents in the first half of games away from them in the second half a huge part of what made the defense great? Once again, a thousand times yes. But having players who not only grasped his schemes (and loved playing in them) but could execute them, and having enough of those players to do ensure the defense had collectively fresh legs in the fourth quarter was also a product of the talent and depth that Franklin and the rest of his staff have built and maintained over the years.

Diaz made Penn State’s defense better, to be sure, but Penn State’s defense made him look pretty damned good, too. That helped give him another head coaching gig and it helped propel many of those players to pro careers or soon-to-be pro careers. The big question for Penn State now isn’t so much how Diaz will fare in Durham but rather can the Nittany Lions keep it going on that side of the ball with whoever replaces him?

The personnel losses will make it tough, for sure. Losing Robinson, Isaac, Kalen King and Johnny Dixon will sting, but Penn State will return playmakers at all three levels, and Franklin has repeatedly shown an ability to reinforce that depth via the transfer portal, even if there have been as many Storm Ducks as Robinsons. Plus, this unit has lost a ton of talent to the NFL over the past few seasons—Jaquan Brisker, J’Ayir Brown, Joey Porter Jr., Jesse Luketa, Brandon Smith, Arnold Ebeketie, Odafe Oweh—and it just kept getting better. Success begets success, and though replicating the numbers it put up this season will be just about impossible, given both the turnover and what should be a more compelling lineup of opponents in 2024, it’s hard to imagine this defense taking too much of a step back regardless of who is calling the plays. And if Penn State’s offense can take even a few steps forward under Andy Kotelnicki and a more seasoned Drew Allar (and, maybe, a couple more dynamic threats at receiver?), the defense will find itself with better game scripts than it’s faced the past few seasons.

Replacing any coaches and maintaining continuity, let alone progressing, isn’t easy, and that goes double for coordinators. Franklin has had to replace some ineffective leaders on offense, but the departures of Moorhead, Ricky Rahne, Brent Pry and now Diaz were all cases of those coaches bolstering their own stock and becoming desirable head coaching candidates, and that reflects well on both Franklin and the program at large. In turn, that track record of success attracts the kind of candidates who want to give their own résumés a shine, which in turn benefits the program. Would Franklin rather be spending the time he’s using to vet potential coordinators preparing for Ole Miss? No doubt. But it’s worth remembering that most of these staff changes have been a feature, not a bug, as Penn State tries to find the mix that will push it over the top.