{"id":71959,"date":"2025-01-25T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71959"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:33:01","slug":"penn-state-about-to-pull-off-a-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/01\/25\/penn-state-about-to-pull-off-a-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State About to Pull Off a Coup?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming off a successful 2024 campaign\u00a0ending with a\u00a0loss to Notre Dame<\/a> in the College Football Playoffs (CFP) semifinals<\/span>, Penn State immediately faced uncertainty.\u00a0 While players have come and gone through the transfer portal, perhaps the biggest surprise so far has been the departure of defensive coordinator Tom Allen<\/a>.\u00a0 He has not yet been replaced, but is Penn State about to pull off a coup and weaken a Big Ten Rival at the same time?<\/p>\n

By all accounts, Penn State had a very successful season.\u00a0 However, conference rival Ohio State was the last team standing as national champions.\u00a0 A big reason for that was the play of the defense under coordinator Jim Knowles.\u00a0 With rumors of Knowles potentially leaving Ohio State, Penn State could look to bring him to Happy Valley.\u00a0 In that scenario, head coach James Franklin would immediately bolster what is already a win-now team.\u00a0 As with most things, it\u2019s also not easy and Penn State will face competition for Knowles.<\/p>\n

Penn State’s Defensive Coordinator Update<\/h2>\n

What to Know About Knowles<\/h3>\n

Knowles has a resume that speaks for itself.\u00a0 As the Ohio State defense’s leader, he now has a championship ring.\u00a0 After reaching the pinnacle of the sport as a defensive coordinator and three years in Columbus, the time may be right for him to move on to the next challenge.\u00a0 Should he decide to move on, he will have options, including Penn State.<\/p>\n

Knowles has produced a Top Three defense in each of the last two seasons at Ohio State. \u00a0\u00a0A driver of that strong performance has been the secondary of the Buckeyes.\u00a0 That is also the strength of the Penn State defense.\u00a0 Though leaders KJ Winston<\/a> and Jaylen Reed<\/a> have declared for the NFL Draft, there is still talent left in the defensive backfield for the next defensive coordinator to work with.<\/p>\n

Despite the rumors, there is still a good chance that he will stay in Columbus with Ohio State instead of moving on.\u00a0 Additionally, Penn State would not be the only school interested in bringing Knowles in.\u00a0 There has been chatter about him moving to Oklahoma, and Notre Dame is also on the market.\u00a0 Landing Knowles is not a slam dunk.<\/p>\n

Other Outside Options Off the Board<\/h3>\n

When Allen\u2019s departure was first announced, several names now off the table circulated.\u00a0 Two of the most prominent had Penn State ties and would have energized the players and fan base.\u00a0 However, both D\u2019Anton Lynn and Al Golden will be elsewhere next season.<\/p>\n

Lynn is the defensive coordinator at USC.\u00a0 He is also a former Penn State defensive back.\u00a0 Lynn is one of the more successful defensive coordinators in college football.\u00a0 He turned around the defense at UCLA before moving to USC.\u00a0 While Penn State, particularly Tyler Warren<\/a>, was successful<\/a> against Lynn\u2019s defense this season, it is improving.\u00a0 USC and head coach Lincoln Riley saw what everyone else did about Lynn\u2019s talents.\u00a0 Early in the offseason, Lynn was re-signed to a lucrative extension to remain at USC.\u00a0 So, he will not be going anywhere, including Penn State.<\/p>\n

Golden is another strong defensive coordinator with Penn State ties.\u00a0 As the head of Notre Dame\u2019s defense, he is also the most recent coordinator to make quarterback Drew Allar<\/a> and the Penn State offense look pedestrian in a big game.\u00a0 Before the game, Golden spoke glowingly of Penn State and former coach Joe Paterno.\u00a0 Alas, Golden is now off the board as well as he did leave Notre Dame.\u00a0 However, he went back to the NFL and the Cincinnati Bengals as defensive coordinator.\u00a0 He was the linebackers coach for the Bengals in 2020-2021.<\/p>\n

A Point About Poindexter<\/h3>\n

Should Franklin decide to promote from within, there is already an option at Happy Valley.\u00a0 Anthony Poindexter has been at Penn State for four years and is the safeties coach.\u00a0 He was also the co-defensive coordinator under both Manny Diaz and Allen.\u00a0 His position group was a strength of the defense.\u00a0 Poindexter has done a nice job developing players, including Ji\u2019Ayir Brown, Winston, and Reed.<\/p>\n

While Poindexter might end up being a great defensive coordinator, he does not bring the big-name notoriety of Knowles, Lynn, or Golden.\u00a0 After the rumors of those big names potentially coming to Penn State, promoting from within may be a letdown and a signal of settling.\u00a0 Additionally, the longer the search goes, the more likely it is that other good candidates come off the board.\u00a0 As the clock ticks, is Penn State about to pull off a coup?\u00a0 If not, their in-house option may be the best, and last remaining, option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming off a successful 2024 campaign\u00a0ending with a\u00a0loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoffs (CFP) semifinals, Penn State immediately faced uncertainty.\u00a0 While players have come and gone through the transfer portal, perhaps the biggest surprise so far has been the departure of defensive coordinator Tom Allen.\u00a0 He has not yet been replaced, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":71965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35610],"tags":[1512,7599,33187,837,9841,3406,796,1746,395,73,3440,309,1073],"class_list":["post-71959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-al-golden","tag-anthony-poindexter","tag-danton-lynn","tag-james-franklin","tag-jiayir-brown","tag-jim-knowles","tag-joe-paterno","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-manny-diaz","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-penn-state-defense","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-tom-allen"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71964,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71959\/revisions\/71964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}