Penn State legend announced as part of 2022 College Football Hall of Fame

Former Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington, who played for the Nittany Lions from 1997-99, has been announced as an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022.

Legend. #WeAre #LBU pic.twitter.com/wPgZvvtGhD

— Penn State Football (@PennStateFball) January 10, 2022

Arrington, now 43, put together a standout career at Penn State and was then selected No. 2 overall by the Washington Redskins in the 2000 NFL Draft. He played with the Redskins from 2000-2005 before spending the 2006 season with the New York Giants.

A three-time Pro Bowler in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Arrington played in 84 career games in the NFL – making 415 total tackles to go along with 23.5 sacks, 10 forced fumbles, four interceptions and two defensive touchdowns. He retired from the NFL in 2007.

A 6-foot-3, 257-pound defensive playmaker, Arrington is from Pittsburgh and prepped at North Hills during his high school days.

Penn State adds new staff members

Penn State head coach James Franklin stuck around in Happy Valley, and there are a few new faces joining him for the 2022 season.

On Tuesday, the Nittany Lions made it official with Stacy Collins, who will serve as the special teams coordinator and will coach both outside linebackers and nickels.

Collins served as the special teams coordinator at Boise State this year, where his group blocked three punts and four kicks overall. The former number ranked No. 7 nationally, while the latter statistic was ninth in the country. Further, Boise State average 15.77 yards per punt return, which was fifth nationally.

Collins is replacing Joe Lorig, who headed to Oregon to coach their special teams unit under new head coach Dan Lanning.

Penn State also hired former Miami head coach Manny Diaz as its new defensive coordinator last month. He will replace new Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach, serving alongside co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter.

Penn State becomes the sixth school where Manny Diaz has served as defensive coordinator since 2006. After working four seasons at Middle Tennessee State, he quickly rose through the ranks at Mississippi State, Texas, Louisiana Tech and also Miami.

Diaz also served as head coach at Miami from 2019-21, accumulating a 21-15 record before parting ways in order to make room for new head coach Mario Cristobal and his staff. The 47-year old Miami native also went 0-2 in bowl games over three seasons and finished his final season 7-5 with a Sun Bowl berth.

On3’s James Fletcher contributed to this report.