Manny Diaz 1-on-1: On lessons learned at Miami, Abdul Carter's sky-high potential, why Penn State could be even better defensively in 2023

In the first week of December 2021, Miami native Manny Diaz was out recruiting when he got word he’d been fired as the head coach of his hometown Hurricanes, ending weeks of speculation about his future employment. 

The Hurricanes were openly flirting and luring Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal back to his alma mater while Diaz remained employed, an embarrassing look for the program the way it awkwardly treated Diaz, who was 21-15 at The U. 

No one would have faulted Diaz if he took his buyout money and sat out a season. 

A year refresher. A year respite. 

Instead, five days later he was introduced as Penn State’s next defensive coordinator. 

“You just never know,” Manny Diaz told On3 on his decision to take another job so quickly. 

“These things happen organically. That’s why you don’t force anything. I think you kind of get a sense of what’s right and where you’re meant to be. … You want to go to a place where you can play great defense and that was something that became evident with the opportunity at Penn State.”

A call from Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin quickly sparked mutual interest, and within a week, Diaz was recruiting with a new logo on his polo. 

How do you rebuild a reputation? For Manny Diaz, it was going right back to work and doing what he’s done throughout his career: Field a ball-hawking defense. 

MANNY DIAZ ON YEAR 1 AT PENN STATE

In Diaz’s first season as the coordinator for the Nittany Lions, Penn State made significant improvements at nearly every statistical category versus its 2021 output. The Nittany Lions led the Big Ten in sacks and tackles for loss. They led the nation in pass breakups. They were Top 10 in takeaways, red zone defense and No. 5 overall in yards per play allowed. They finished 11-2, with a Rose Bowl win over Utah.

In Year 2, with foundational stars like linebacker Abdul Carter, pass rusher Chop Robinson and corner Kalen King all back, Manny Diaz believes Penn State can be even better on defense in 2023. 

“We rebuild everything because you don’t fool yourself that what you’ve accomplished is automatically in the bank for the following year,” Diaz said. 

“But defense is about how to defend offense. I don’t think you can be really, really good on defense without being good without really, really good understanding offense. If you are still working to think through what you have to do on defense then you aren’t really able to give the offense the energy and focus it needs. I do think that familiarity with our guys who do have a lot of experience will help us a lot this year.”

Penn State lost key starters off last year’s unit like corner Joey Porter Jr. and safety Ji’Ayir “Tig” Brown, the team’s leading tackler, but seven starters are back and the Nittany Lions have more depth and experience than a season ago. 

Diaz expects ends Adisa Isaac and Dani Dennis-Sutton to be better. He believes cornerback Johnny Dixon is ready for a larger role and that defensive tackle D’Von Ellies is capable of doing the same dirty work inside that defined the departed PJ Mustipher. 

But it helps that sophomore linebacker Abdul Carter and junior pass rusher Chop Robinson just might be capitol S-T-U-D-S. Both have the talent to be centrifugal forces for a defense that aims to be the best in the Big Ten in 2023.

Carter burst onto the scene as a freshman last year, immediately drawing comps to a former famous No. 11 linebacker who starred in Happy Valley. The 6-3, 250-pound missile isn’t Micah Parsons, but Carter provides Diaz a similar versatile skill set as a playmaker who can line up at multiple positions. He finished his freshman season with 56 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks and four PBUs. 

“He’s so athletically gifted. He has great size. His speed, and maybe more so his acceleration, is so good,” Diaz said. 

“He can really telegraph inside the box in short spaces or out in space so quickly. He has a great knack for rushing the passer. His size and strength make him a really good tackler. In Year 2, he made a big step forward in the spring growing more comfortable in the system. He can play faster. He understands what to do within the framework of the defense. … Sometimes it’s him making (the plays) and sometimes it’s the plays he’s not actually making because by being where he’s supposed to be someone, else makes a tackle.”

Diaz believes the sky is the limit for Carter, and his principle focus is to not put too much on the sophomore’s plate. 

“We have to make sure you don’t confuse the player for the sake of trying to trick the offense,” Diaz said on the temptation to slot Carter all over the field. 

“We want to make sure he’s playing fast. So you do what you do with any great player is find what they do best and how that affects winning for us.”

Diaz is similarly excited about Chop Robinson’s potential in his second season in the scheme. The former Maryland transfer didn’t participate in spring ball a year ago, so he was doing “on-the-job training during the season,” per Diaz.

Robinson, who has been listed in various Way-Too-Early 2024 1st Round Mock Drafts, still finished with 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss, but the upside and production projects to be even better in 2023 now that the junior understands his role in the defense. 

“He’s so much more comfortable in the scheme,” Diaz said. 

“So much more comfortable what to do, but more importantly how to do it. You can see the difference there. … He’s made a jump and should be a great benefit to our defense.”

HOW PENN STATE TURNED THE CORNER DEFENSIVELY IN 2022

As well as Penn State played defensively in 2022, Diaz’s group certainly wasn’t flawless — and he readily admits as much. The Nittany Lions allowed 31 points in their opener against Purdue, needing a late third-down stop to secure the win. In a one-score game with under six minutes in the 4th quarter against rival Ohio State, PSU allowed the Buckeyes to march down the field for a 7-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to ice the win. 

But it was after an embarrassing performance in a blowout loss to Michigan that Diaz believes Penn State’s defense truly found its footing. The Wolverines gutted the Lions on the ground for 418 rushing yards, as Carter & Co., were caught freelancing over and over again. 

The players didn’t trust each other, or the scheme. The team had a frank film session the next day, which exposed the unit’s lack of cohesiveness.

It was a wake-up call, but a lesson the team immediately responded to, allowing the defense to rebound with a strong showing the very next week against Minnesota star tailback Mo Ibrahim.

“You never want to have to wait until Week 7 to really learn a harsh lesson and dial it in,” Diaz said. 

“But we did learn a lot. Our players became more and more comfortable with the scheme. But we know that if we want to win the things that we want to win, we have to be ready to go from Day 1 now and I think that’s been the focus all offseason. 

“Two things I think we’re doing better at is playing blocks (compared to this time) last year. And more than anything it’s really trust. I think that’s the lesson we really learned from the Michigan game that really helped us the rest of the year was the players were able to believe in their teammates. To trust their teammates and just simply do their job and the defense could be successful without them worrying about having to be two places at once.”

WHY HAVOC IS SO IMPORTANT TO A MANNY DIAZ DEFENSE

Manny Diaz was the brainchild of Miami’s famed Turnover Chain, and while there’s no such takeaway gimmick at PSU, he’s still preaching the importance of creating as much havoc as possible. He established his aggressive philosophy as a GA at Florida State working under Mickey Andrews, and it’s fueled some great successes at various stops like NC State, Mississippi State and Miami. 

Diaz believes in creating chaos, as much as possible. And the results show as much. Penn State set a school record with 20.8 havoc plays per play in 2022 — over a six-play per game improvement from 2021.

“Our job is to prevent points,” he said. 

“There’s only two ways to score: You can score the football from a long ways away or you can score from up close, so want to eliminate explosive plays and play really good red zone defense. Those have been good metrics for us over the years. Havoc is very important because if teams aren’t going to create explosive touchdowns against you, then they have to drive the field. If you can create a negative play all the data says that a drive with a negative play the amount of points expected is reduced dramatically. 

“To put it in easier terms: Negative plays create 3rd-and-longs. Third-and-longs favor defenses. Third and-longs are the downs and distance where the most turnovers occur. 

“So we do believe it’s important to hunt the tackle for loss. It’s important to hunt the negative play because it gives you the best chance to get off the field and get the ball back to your offense.”

And the Nittany Lions have a team full of speedy, hungry hunters.

PSU returns three players with 10+ TFLs, and a guy like Dennis-Sutton, a freakish 6-5, 255-pound end who flashed as a freshman in 2022, is more than capable of joining the group, too. Diaz has long used analytics for information on where his defenses can improve, and he identified a couple of categories he wants PSU to be better at this fall: 3rd downs, and turning some of those pass breakups into picks. 

“I still laugh when people still put yards per game as a stat,” he said.

“We look at where you’re strong and where we could be stronger. We try to take every bit of information we can to help us improve.”

MANNY DIAZ WANTS TO BE A HEAD COACH AGAIN

Manny Diaz’s first go-round as a head coach ended poorly. He knows as much. He’d do a lot of things differently if he had a mulligan, but that’s not the way it works. At 49, the veteran coordinator wants to be a head coach again, and he interviewed for open jobs at FAU and South Florida this past cycle. 

If the right opportunity presents itself — much like his current gig at PSU, “organically” — Diaz won’t hesitate to take over the top chair at a program. He learned a harsh, but valuable lesson at Miami. 

“The most important thing is to make sure that we’re you’re at you have great alignment. That you have the ability to connect the dots between support and expectations,” he said. 

“I think that’s important for any coach in this profession.”

For now, what’s important for Diaz is to pilot a Penn State defense that aims to be the backbone of a potential championship team. The Nittany Lions enter the summer with bubbling momentum and hype, hoping to return to the Big Ten title for the first time since 2016. 

“We’re going to be in the mix,” Diaz said on Penn State’s expectations in 2023. 

“We were right there a year ago.”