James Franklin opens up on future of defensive staff after hiring new coordinator

Penn State will have to hire a new defensive coordinator after Manny Diaz left for the head coaching job at Duke, leaving coach James Franklin in a position he’s been in before.

The Nittany Lions will look to hire a new coordinator while keeping the current staff mostly intact.

“I think more times than not when we can do that that’s what I’d like to do, and I’m very clear and up front about that on the front end with the coordinators I hire,” Franklin said. “So we’ll see how this thing plays out, but I’ve been very clear and transparent about that. And again, I think I’ve shown that over time.”

Diaz spent two seasons in charge of the defense at Penn State, and his hire was right in line with what Franklin likes to do. That’s not to say that Diaz wasn’t allowed to bring some personnel with him, though. Diaz was able to bring Rick Lyster with him as a defensive analyst and analytics coordinator.

“That was a big part of hiring Manny,” Franklin said. “‘Hey, I really would like to keep the staff in place. I’ve got good guys. They’ve been loyal to Penn State, they’ve been loyal to me.’ Although we’re trying to hire a new defensive coordinator, a lot of times coordinators want to bring people with them. I totally get that. We were able to do that with Manny and he brought coach Lyster with him as an off-the-field person and it worked out really well for everybody involved.”

Franklin harped on his loyalty as one of the major reasons he hopes to keep his current staffers in place even while hiring a new coordinator.

Not only does it give him an added layer of comfort, but Franklin explained it’s in the best interest of the program to have that kind of continuity and loyalty.

“I think if you look at my history as a head coach, I’m a very, very loyal guy,” he said. “You look, we got the Vanderbilt job and we came to Penn State, I think we brought 16 people with us and their families. That’s not common, if you look at what’s going on in college football. Then a lot of those guys stayed with me for a long time, and kind of lost a guy, and lost a guy over ten years.”

Franklin further expounded on his loyalty and what he meant by it.

“And let me say this too. The loyalty part, too, sometimes you make a change and people will say, ‘Well you made a change, I don’t understand how you’re talking about loyalty,'” James Franklin said. “My loyalty is to Penn State, my loyalty is to the players and my loyalty is to the entire staff. And sometimes you have to make a change for the loyalty of the entire staff and the entire team. So I want to make sure that that doesn’t come off as contradictory. So I think over time that’s worked out really well for us and I’d like to continue doing that if we could.”