ATLANTA — Penn State assistant coach Anthony Poindexter has had an interesting past two years, interviewing for the University of Virginia’s head coaching job in late 2021 and then expressing interest in Penn State’s recently vacant defensive coordinator position.
In the first instance Poindexter went from seemingly the odds-on favorite to become UVA’s next head coach to returning to Penn State. In the second instance, Poindexter was eventually passed over for incoming defensive coordinator and former Indiana head coach Tom Allen. Two big jobs, two big opportunities, and not a whole lot to show for it.
On paper it sounds like a halfway decent reason to be a bit annoyed or even a bit angry at how things are working out, but according to Poindexter there’s a difference between wanting these career advancements and being unhappy with the situation you’re in if you don’t get them.
“I got into coaching to help kids and I have a passion for football and I want to really I want to see kids experience what I experienced,” Poindexter said on Thursday during Peach Bowl preparations just a short walk from the College Football Hall of Fame, where he is a member thanks to his All-American playing career at Virginia. “So we talked about the Hall of Fame last night. I had a lot of experiences in my playing career, if they can just feel some of those moments and I can help them feel some of those moments. That’s that’s all I really want.
“I don’t have to be in charge. I don’t have to be a guy. I had those moments in my life. I just want to work with a really good organization with really good people and win games and that’s what Coach Franklin created and created for me and my family. I just like to come to work and have a good time and then go football. So you know, that’s just me.”
To what degree Poindexter is simply being polite about the whole thing is unknown. To a certain extent one imagines that Poindexter can’t really blame Franklin for looking on the open market for a defensive coordinator and having that search return a longtime head coach with experience in the exact same systems Penn State likes to run defensively. It’s also not as though Poindexter’s growing laundry list of titles and the associated pay raises that come with them don’t help soften the blow.
Overall Penn State being able to find a coordinator like Allen while keeping an assistant like Poindexter is a major coup for Franklin if things work out as planned. Poindexter has been an invaluable asset to the program since his arrival three seasons ago, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was the best available option to the program for the coordinator role. Only time will tell if Franklin made the right call.
And as long as he and Allen can work well together – and there’s no reason to think they can’t – then that’s all that really matters.
“I said, Coach, wherever you can lend a hand, lend a hand. We don’t have egos that way,” Poindexter, who is serving as Penn State’s interim defensive coordinator said of Allen getting acclimated to the program in the time leading up to the Peach Bowl. “… So it’s been great, he’s been sitting in the meetings with us. He’s trying to just give us our respect, but obviously we give him his respect — Coach, please help us and chime in whenever you think it’s needed.”
