Well, folks, it’s over. Manny Diaz is a Duke Blue Devil.

With Penn State’s defensive coordinator out the door to Duke, the Nittany Lions have another coaching vacancy to fill. James Franklin’s hired his defensive coordinators well, especially with his last two earning Power 5 head coaching jobs directly from Penn State, but there may not be a more critical time to set his defense up for success to match that of the offense.

Part of the difficulty with Penn State’s hiring process is that so many of the best candidates have already been snapped up. While Franklin’s November firing of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich allowed Penn State to take its pick of the best candidates in the country, those options aren’t as available as the bowl season approaches.

With limited coaching options and a plethora of player talent in mind, let’s take a look at some of the best options that Penn State can bring in to fill its newest coaching vacancy.

Anthony Poindexter | Penn State, Safeties Coach

James Franklin doesn’t normally hire from within, especially for these positions, but that doesn’t mean that this move is completely off the radar. Plenty of folks have tabbed Anthony Poindexter, currently Penn State’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, as a good fit for a promotion.

Poindexter has worked his way up the college football landscape since the turn of the century. He first started as a graduate assistant with his alma mater at Virginia and slowly worked his way up the ladder. After working with the running backs and special teams, Poindexter eventually moved to the defensive backs, a role he’s had ever since. The Cavaliers used Poindexter’s safeties as key members of their defense toward the end of his tenure, as Virginia’s top two safeties both finished as top-five tacklers for the team in the 2012 season.

After earning the defensive coordinator role at UConn, Poindexter made the Huskies one of the better defenses in FBS, creating a program that was 33rd in the country in scoring defense. Still, Poindexter was fired along with the entire UConn staff after the 2016 season.

Poindexter put together a strong reputation during his time at Purdue as the Boilermakers’ safeties coach. He was part of a massive improvement across Purdue’s defense as a whole, and his top two safeties were key members of Purdue’s defense.

Since coming to Penn State, Poindexter has coached up some pretty notable safeties. He’s worked with the likes of Jaquan Brisker, who he turned from a JUCO player into a draft pick and current NFL players Jonathan Sutherland and Ji’Ayir Brown. This year, Poindexter’s safeties are a pretty impressive group, with Jaylen Reed and Kevin Winston Jr. acting as strong standard bearers for a well-rounded group.

Tom Allen | Indiana, Former Head Coach

Looking for a Manny Diaz-eque hire? Look no further than Tom Allen who was recently relieved of his duties as the head coach at Indiana. Allen hasn’t made the news in any head coaching searches, so he might not be too hard to lure to Happy Valley.

Allen, who led the Hoosiers for seven years, first spent time in Bloomington as the team’s defensive coordinator. After taking over one of the worst defensive groups in the nation, Allen turned the Hoosiers around. The same team that gave up 37.6 points per game in 2016 gave up 27.2 points per game the next year. The Hoosiers also improved from giving up more than 500 yards per game in 2015 to cutting that number down by nearly 130 yards per game in 2016.

Despite a terrible year in 2022, Allen’s defenses at Indiana have largely held that line. They weren’t show-stopping or putting up the nation’s best numbers, but the Hoosiers put together a good showing with the talent they had.

Joe Harasymiak | Rutgers, Defensive Coordinator

If James Franklin isn’t looking for another Manny Diaz, maybe he’d like an Andy Kotelnicki hire. Much of the appeal around Kotelnicki was that he ran a pretty good offense built on shoddy talent. Joe Harasymiak has done the same thing at Rutgers as defensive coordinator.

Despite holding one of the worst talent pools in the Big Ten, Rutger’s defense was pretty middle of the pack. The Scarlet Knights ranked seventh in scoring defense and sixth in total defense this year across the conference, even while playing in the more offensively-minded division.

Outside Rutgers, Harasymiak has his share of Big Ten experience. He worked with Minnesota as the Golden Gophers’ safeties coach from 2018 to 2020 and was promoted to work with all defensive backs in 2020. In Harasymiak’s final year in charge of Minnesota’s defensive backs in 2021, the Golden Gophers were rated as the second-best team in the Big Ten for passing defense, a mark they haven’t hit since after his departure.

Having someone with a New Jersey connection can’t hurt Penn State either. There are more than a few good players sitting in the transfer portal with New Jersey connections who could swing to Rutgers. Having someone from the Garden State connect with those players could work well for Penn State now and down the road.

Joe Klanderman | Kansas State, Defensive Coordinator

If Harasymiak wasn’t close enough to Kotelnicki, Kansas State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman might just do it. Kansas State’s defense has been the epitome of building something out of nothing under Klanderman, who has made the Wildcats into one of the best defenses in the conference.

Kansas State’s defense allowed the second-fewest points per game in the Big 12 with no five-star recruits and just two four-stars. The only team ahead of the Wildcats in their conference in scoring offense was Texas, which was rated as the third-best team in college football by the College Football Playoff selection committee.

Admittedly, Klanderman doesn’t have a ton of experience in FBS. Before Kansas State, Klanderman worked at Minnesota State and North Dakota State — two FCS schools. Still, Klanderman has risen quickly through the ranks of FBS football. Since he was hired at Kansas State in 2019, he earned a promotion from safeties coach to defensive coordinator and sent five different Wildcat defensive players to the NFL Draft since 2021.

Klanderman might be somewhat difficult to lure away from Kansas State. As Kotelnicki did with Lance Leipold at Kansas, Klanderman followed his head coach, Chris Klieman, to Kansas State. Still, it Franklin is willing to shell out some cash for another solid hire, Klanderman might be the guy.