Manny Diaz 'full speed ahead' on Rose Bowl, 2023 season
The architect of one of college football’s most stout defenses this season, Manny Diaz naturally had questions to address about his future on Friday. A defensive coordinator in his first season at Penn State, meeting with reporters for Rose Bowl media day at Beaver Stadium, Diaz was asked about his future with the program and his aspirations beyond it.
Calling this time of year “silly season” for its avalanche of noise, rumors, and innuendo, Diaz was effusive in his praise for the job he currently has.
“The great thing I have is, I’ve got a great job. And it would take an amazingly great job to leave a great job,” Diaz said. “So you focus on what’s real. And this is not the first time through this, so this is kind of how you handle it, year in and year out.
“And in this profession, if you’re doing a good job, they’re saying you’re leaving somewhere else. You’re not doing a good job, they say they want you to leave to go somewhere else. It’s just the nature of the business. So you just manage to keep real what’s real and press on.”
Manny Diaz debut at Penn State
This season, Diaz did an undeniably good job by seemingly any metric.
In the most important category, the Nittany Lions were among the nation’s most effective scoring defenses. Landing at tied for ninth, Penn State allowed just 18.0 points per game, a number inflated slightly by pick-sixes.
To get there, Penn State relied on an effective run defense, finishing 14th overall at 105.1 yards per game. Paired with a pass defense that finished No. 2 nationally in team passing efficiency defense, Penn State relied on Diaz’s group throughout the season.
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But, with his name mentioned a few times, and attention that’s surely still to come for the Broyles Award semifinalist, Diaz contextualized how he’s looking at the process.
“At this point, it’s full speed ahead for 2023 (and) for the Rose Bowl,” Diaz said. “In terms of ambition, yeah, I’d like to be a head coach again. I enjoyed it. I think there’s some unfinished business with the way things happened a year ago, which I think it’s kind of played out. But the second time around, I think you’re a little wiser in the opportunity. And you don’t necessarily just let the opportunity choose you, I think you choose the opportunity a little bit differently.”
Next steps
Counterbalancing that choice, Diaz said his comfort with Penn State serves as a strong reason to be picky about his next steps.
“When you don’t have a platform that you feel comfortable at where you’re at, you may feel more desperate to just lunge for something,” Diaz said. “So that’s where I’m very blessed that I’ve got a place where I know we can play great defense for a long time, and that’s the standard, and it gets you into the office every day to make sure that as a staff and that as a unit that we uphold that standard.”
