Five things to know about new Penn State football defensive coordinator Manny Diaz

Penn State football announced the hiring of Manny Diaz as its new defensive coordinator on Saturday morning.

Diaz has 24 years of coaching experience and most recently spent four seasons in the head job at Miami.

“He has an innovative approach to complement his extensive Xs & Os knowledge which he developed through his stops at multiple Power Five conferences,” Penn State coach James Franklin said in a prepared statement. “Manny’s defensive philosophy is in line with our scheme and will help in the transition with our current team.”

1. Diaz typically does well in year one

Diaz is well-traveled as a defensive coordinator. Penn State will be his seventh stop in that role.

Notably for Nittany Lion fans, Diaz has a solid record of doing well in year one. Diaz improved the defense in his first season at the helm at four of his six previous stops.

School	PPG against in year prior to arrival	PPG against in Diaz’s first year
Middle Tennessee (2006)	18.7 (17th nationally)	23.2 (63rd)
Mississippi State (2010)	26.8 (71st)	19.8 (21st)
Texas (2011)	23.7 (50th)	22.2 (34th)
Louisiana Tech (2014)	26.3 (60th)	24.7 (38th)
Mississippi State (2015)	21.7 (23rd)	23.2 (36th)
Miami (2016)	28.2 (77th)	18.5 (12th)

Certainly, context will play a part next season for Diaz. It will be difficult to improve on Penn State’s top-10 defense from this season, especially considering some of the pieces the Nittany Lions seem likely to lose.

Be that as it may, his habit of getting off to a running start should give fans of the Nittany Lions confidence.

2. Diaz can step right into Brent Pry’s role as linebackers coach

A nice bonus for the Nittany Lions is that Diaz has extensive experience coaching linebackers.

He coached that position group for the three years he spent as the defensive coordinator in Miami, three years at Texas, two years at Middle Tennessee and NC State, and a year each at Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech.

Brent Pry also served as Penn State’s linebackers coach before he departed to take the head job at Virginia Tech.

As a result, Diaz fits in nicely, and doesn’t force James Franklin to shuffle around his coaching staff any furhter.

3. Expect his Penn State defense to spend a lot of time in the backfield

Among the hallmarks of Diaz’s defense at Miami was its ability to blow up plays in the backfield.

The Hurricanes got plenty of sacks during Diaz’s tenure. They didn’t spend one season outside of the top 35 nationally in that metric since he arrived in 2016.

They tied for tops in the nation in sacks per game against FBS opponents in 2017, finished fourth in 2019 and 13th in 2018.

Diaz’s Hurricanes also proved explosive against the ground game. Miami ranked inside the nation’s top 10 in tackles for loss in each season of his tenure there.

Related: What is new Penn State coordinator Manny Diaz like as a recruiter? Two On3 experts weigh in

4. Varied success generating turnovers

Diaz has experienced some very effective seasons from a turnover generation standpoint, but his defenses have also gone through some years when takeaways were hard to come by.

Diaz’s Louisiana Tech defense ranked second in the nation in takeaways back in 2014, and Miami finished fourth in takeaways in 2017.

Last season, however, the Hurricanes ranked 111th in the country with less than one takeaway per game against FBS competition, on average.

Since 2010, Diaz’s defenses have spent five seasons inside the country’s top 35 when it comes to turnover creation, but they’ve also spent five seasons 65th or lower in that category.

5. Diaz brings some recruiting chops to Penn State

Diaz did well as a recruiter during his time as Miami’s head coach.

The Hurricanes signed the No. 10 class in the country in 2021 according to the On3 Consensus.

Two defensive five-star prospects came with that class — defensive lineman Leonard Taylor and safety James Williams.

Diaz brought in the No. 17 overall class in 2020 and the 25th-ranked class in 2018. The class he put together for the 2022 cycle is currently ranked 18th in the On3 Consensus.

Diaz gives the Nittany Lions another valuable presence in the talent-rich state of Florida as well. Both Taylor and Williams hail from the Sunshine State.