James Franklin on addition of Anthony Poindexter to Penn State staff

Penn State head coach James Franklin added a familiar face to his staff this offseason, and his defense is already reaping the benefits. 

Longtime college coach and former All-American safety Anthony Poindexter joined Penn State’s staff as a safeties coach in February. So far, Franklin likes what he sees.

“Obviously, we’ve got a small sample size, both good and bad, so I don’t like to kinda overreact to things, but I’m a big Anthony Poindexter fan,” Franklin said. “I have been for a long time.”

In the 2000s, Franklin and Poindexter overlapped as coaches while they were at Maryland and Virginia, respectively. They became familiar with each other while recruiting the same areas in the Mid-Atlantic, and Franklin said he has tried to bring Poindexter on in the past but the timing had never been quite right. This offseason, the stars aligned, and Franklin got an experienced coordinator who knows the recruiting area Penn State typically targets. 

Franklin announced the hire in February, and prior to coming to State College, Poindexter spent four years as Purdue’s safeties coach. He held the same position at UConn from 2014-2016 and spent 11 years at Virginia, his alma mater, coaching several positions.

Poindexter was a two-time consensus All-American safety for the Cavaliers but tore his ACL in October 1998, his senior year. As a result, he fell to the seventh round of the 1999 NFL Draft. Although he did not play in the game, he was a member of the 2000 Ravens team that won the Super Bowl.

Experienced safety room buys into Poindexter

“Our players love him,” Franklin added of Poindexter. “He’s been great on the staff. He’s got coordinator experience. He’s a regional fit from a recruiting and from an experience standpoint. So it really just checked a lot of boxes, and it’s gone extremely well. I think his experience both coaching and playing the position has been really valuable, and so far so good. He’s obviously got here at a good time too where we got some experienced guys that are ready to take the next step.”

Penn State has one of the better safety rooms in the Big Ten led by Jaquan Brisker. The community college transfer arrived at Penn State in 2019 and had 88 tackles and three interceptions in his first two years. In Saturday’s win against Wisconsin, he added four more tackles and another interception to his resume. According to PFF, Brisker missed just one tackle on 60 attempts last year, which led all FBS safeties and was the second-lowest rate seen in the PFF college era. 

Redshirt senior Jonathan Sutherland and senior Ji’Ayir Brown were also big contributors on Saturday from the Nittany Lions’ safety room, recording seven and five tackles, respectively. Brown had an interception as well. Like Brisker, Brown also attended Lackawanna Community College before coming to Penn State.