Reports: Penn State to Hire Ikaika Malloe as Defensive Line Coach

Matt Campbell has selected another position coach.

Ikaika Malloe will serve as Penn State’s defensive line coach, according to multiple reports, replacing Deion Barnes, who recently left for the same role at South Carolina. Malloe most recently served as UCLA’s defensive coordinator, but parted ways with the team when head coach Deshaun Foster was fired after an 0-3 start — two games before the Bruins defeated the Nittany Lions 42-37.

Malloe was promoted to defensive coordinator after D’Anton Lynn left for the same role with in-state rival USC, and the two will now reunite at Penn State after Lynn was recently hired as defensive coordinator. Their tenures at UCLA overlapped in 2022, Lynn’s final year there, when Malloe arrived as a special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach.

Malloe’s other coaching experience includes two stops with his alma mater, Washington, and stints at Western Illinois, UTEP, Hawai’i, Yale, Portland State and Utah State, giving him strong West Coast ties.

Notable defensive linemen drafted under Malloe, either as a defensive line coach or defensive coordinator, include Oluwafemi Oladejo and Jay Toia in 2025, Laiatu Latu in 2024, Levi Onwuzurike in 2021, Greg Gaines in 2019 and Vita Vea in 2018.