Can Penn State hold on to Manny Diaz this offseason?
Penn State head coach James Franklin spoke with the media on Monday afternoon in his final game preview press conference of the season. If you want to check that out, Blue White Illustrated has the full video here, and on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube page.
Today, we’re discussing several topics from his comments today on our post-press conference wrap-up. Senior Editor Nate Bauer is here to read between the lines of Franklin’s comments about the offense and former coordinator Mike Yurcich.
But today, we also focus on what’s next for defensive coordinator Manny Diaz.
Penn State defense on another level with Diaz
When asked how the team has been so locked in on defense this year, Franklin quickly gave credit to Diaz first, and then the defensive staff.
“First of all, we’ve been fortunate to play good defense here for a while, but I do believe that Manny [Diaz] has done a phenomenal job of not only taking what we have been able to do here over 10 years but taking it to another level.”
The added pressure that Penn State plays with both in the front and in coverage has changed the unit.
“Obviously, we’ve discussed the slightly different style. [In] This style, you have the ability to be more suffocating, which we talked about in the past because there is just not a whole lot of gimme free yards on the field with as much press coverage as we play.”
Franklin focused on eliminating lateral moves
But will Diaz be back after two impressive seasons of captaining the Penn State defense? Or will he find a head coaching job of his own? Franklin focused on what he can control in the situation.
“I think what we talked about in the past is what can we do and what do we need to do here at Penn State to make sure that guys don’t leave for lateral moves. To me, that’s really the main focus. We’ve got to make sure that assistants don’t leave for assistant positions and coordinators don’t leave to be coordinators.
If guys have a chance for a clear, obvious promotion, we want that for him. We like to create a situation here for Manny and his family that he wants to be here until he has an opportunity to get a really good head coaching job that’s going to allow him to flourish. I think Brent [Pry] handled it probably as well as any. He had a great job, turned down a bunch of jobs waiting for the right one.”
The team plays Michigan State on Friday, so practice availability for this week is now on Tuesday evening. Stay locked on Blue White Illustrated for more game-week coverage.
