New Penn State assistant Manny Diaz to bring 'fast, aggressive' defense

New defensive coordinator Manny Diaz brought with him a reputation as a player’s coach to Penn State.

Wednesday morning, in his first comments as a Nittany Lion assistant coach during the program’s signing day celebration, Diaz demonstrated why. 

Previewing the type of coach his new colleagues and student-athletes could expect, Diaz stressed the simple importance of players.

“It’s what would you want as a player,” Diaz said. “You want a coach that has your back. You want a coach that’s completely dedicated to maximizing your potential on and off the field.”

Diaz continued, turning his attention to the type of defense that would come with him to Penn State.

“I like the defense to play the way I would like to watch defense play,” he said. “We want to be fast. We want to be aggressive. It doesn’t make any sense to get all of these great recruits you’re seeing here, and all the great highlight videos, and slow them down with a bunch of stuff that they’ve got to think about. 

“Our job as coaches is when they’re out there, they can let their athletic ability shine. That comes from having great relationships with your players and I think that always happens when they know that you’re in it for them. I know we like to talk about coaches, but the players play, and our job is to serve them and to see them succeed.”

The Nittany Lons will soon get that opportunity as a result of Diaz’s decision to sign on with the program last week, announced officially Saturday morning.

Revisiting the connection with head coach James Franklin as occurring sometime in the middle of last week, Diaz said he quickly had to evaluate his future as a coach. Recently dismissed from his head coaching position at Miami, the accomplished coordinator said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. 

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“To coach defense at Penn State, to coach linebackers at Penn State, that’s uncommon,” he said. “People work in this profession their entire lives and wish they had the chance to coach here and especially to coach defensive linebackers. 

“The more we spoke, and what his vision was, and how we operated, and the values that he was about, I think we found that we were aligned. There was already an alignment defensively, and it sort of ticked all the boxes.”

To his new colleagues, the same can be said of Diaz in his short time at Penn State.

Also joining the signing day show with host Mitch Gerber, defensive recruiting coordinator and the longest-tenured member of Franklin’s staff, Terry Smith said Diaz’s impression has been felt immediately at the Lasch Building.

“The immediate thing you see is a great leader. You see a lot of energy. You see a guy that wants to lead the room and a guy that knows a lot of defense,” Smith said. “We’ve always played great defense here at Penn State and we expect to play great defense coming forward in the future. But his energy, it’s infectious and he loves football, he loves young men and trying to make them better. And that’s what we’re all about. We want to make our locker room guys better and we want to put out a great product for Penn State football.”

Having signed a 23-man Class of 2022 Wednesday, highlighted by 10 prospects signed to the defensive side of the ball, Diaz and the Nittany Lions’ coaching will soon get that opportunity. 

Determined to integrate himself within a program that has immediately opened its arms to him, Diaz said he’s looking forward to that chance.

“You want to be around great people. You want to be around like-minded people. And you want to have a chance to win and compete for championships,” Diaz said. “And as I’ve seen it with the staff here, and the players that we have, the players we’re going to continue to add here… you want to have a chance to win and we’ve got a chance to win here at Penn State.”