Penn State Football: top storylines to watch as spring practice begins

The first glance at a Manny Diaz led Penn State Football defense

This spring will be the first time that Penn State Football fans get a look at a Nittany Lion defense led by someone other than Brent Pry since 2015. With Pry’s departure to be the head coach at Virginia Tech, James Franklin made a homerun hire, bringing in Manny Diaz.

Diaz’s base defense is a 4-3, same as Pry, so there will not be much of a change from that perspective.

However, it will be interesting to see how Diaz, who has had previous success as a defensive coordinator, blends his schemes and philosophies with Penn State and their returning defensive players and coaches, who have also had success on that side of the ball.

What new concepts will Diaz bring in from his days at Miami, where he led one of the best defenses in the country in 2018, his last season as a defensive coordinator before taking over as head coach, and what concepts will remain the same?

After his hiring back in December, he said that he would like to keep some things the same, because he wants returning players to be comfortable in the system, to make the transition easier.

Additionally, after Diaz was officially hired, James Franklin stated that he wanted his new defensive coordinator and linebackers coach to “be the head coach of the defense”, so perhaps we will hear from the “head coach of the defense” quite a bit this spring, and get a better feel for his persona.