Virginia great Anthony Poindexter bypassed again for DC job at Penn State

Anthony Poindexter, the former co-defensive coordinator at Penn State, is once again being bypassed for the full job there.

Multiple reports have head coach James Franklin settling on Tom Allen, the recent former head coach at Indiana, to take over as his defensive coordinator, replacing Manny Diaz, who left Happy Valley to take the head-coach job at Duke.

Diaz was the DC at Penn State the past two seasons, getting the job after Brent Pry left to take the HC job at Virginia Tech two Decembers ago.

That was back when Poindexter’s name came up as a candidate for the open Virginia job that eventually went to Tony Elliott, who had his choice between the UVA and Duke jobs, and chose the one in Charlottesville.

Mike Elko, then the DC at Texas A&M, ended up at Duke, led the Blue Devils to a nine-win season in 2022, and made it back to College Station as the new coach at A&M after the folks there cut ties with former FSU coach Jimbo Fisher.

The one guy on the short end of the stick in this merry-go-round: Dex.

Fisher, yes, lost his job, but there are 77 million reasons things are going to work out just fine for him.

Poindexter, meanwhile, was basically demoted, even if just in title – Pry called the plays on defense when he and Dex shared the co-defensive coordinator title at Penn State.

Poindexter is still just the safeties coach on Franklin’s staff, now working under Allen, who was fired by IU after going 7-17 in the past two seasons.

Allen was replaced by former JMU coach Curt Cignetti.

You’ll notice that everybody in this story is getting something nice out of the merry-go-round except AP.

Well, he does get to be the co-defensive coordinator for Penn State’s bowl game.