For Deion Barnes, accelerated path to DL job no accident

Deion Barnes wasn’t worried about the normal path. Announced as Penn State’s new defensive line coach on March 13, one day before the start of the Nittany Lions’ spring practices, his route to his first job hadn’t mimicked that of his peers. 

He’d parlayed a Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2012 into a brief career in the NFL, caught on as a trainer working with high school prospects in Philadelphia, and, in 2020, made his way back to Penn State as a graduate assistant. 

But, after three years of working alongside John Scott Jr., when the vacancy opened on Feb. 28 upon Scott’s exit to the Detroit Lions, Barnes said he had no misgivings about his qualifications to fill the role. And, with or without the trajectory that usually is demanded of young coaches before landing a Power Five position coaching gig, he’d been uniquely prepared to handle it. 

“That’s the path that everybody usually goes through. So that was the thought. But when this thing came up, it wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it could be a possibility that I can get this thing,” Barnes said last week. “The work I put in from the years before and the connection I have with these kids, I felt like it was a good possibility to get this thing.”

Deion Barnes first months

Barnes’ intuition was correct. So was the basis of his preparedness, which he’s seen in action in the month that has passed in the time since.

Crediting his time in the program as a GA, pointing both to his willingness to absorb the avalanche of information and insight crossing his path every day of the process as well as that of the valuable perspectives shared by his coaching mentors and colleagues, Barnes wound up gleaning the most from the man who’d ultimately come to hire him.

“The last three years of the work that I put in every day, the knowledge that I was able to soak up from the guys, Coach Terry, Coach Scott, Coach Banks, I was just soaking up all that knowledge” Barnes said. “So when the time came, I was ready for it because of what everybody else here, basically just having the ears and listening and then implementing it.

“Coach Franklin ultimately has got me ready because everything that he does, he tried to make sure… the same way he’s on these kids, the same way he’s on me. So he made sure that I would be ready, if it was here, wherever it was. I think he does a great job with trying to train young guys to make sure when that job comes open, that you’re able to be ready for it.”

Next steps

It’s a combination that continues to pay off for Barnes and, in many respects, Franklin and the Nittany Lion program.

Meeting with Franklin on an individual level the feedback provided has helped ease an abrupt transition that included no grace period for acclimation. Combined with Torrence Brown, a defensive end teammate of Barnes’ during the 2014 season, now back as a grad assistant, Penn State has created a strength-in-numbers scenario to help solidify the position group this spring. 

“You got to remember, he’s been here for three years with us, he played for me, so culturally, he understands what we do, how we operate. But there’s a difference between being a complementary guy in the room to it being your room,” Franklin said. “Even Deion thinks he’s going to be the same Deion. He’s not going to be the same Deion. It’s a different role, different responsibility. There are different pressures associated with it. But he’s been good.”