Talking Defense With Penn State's Manny Diaz
Manny Diaz, Penn State's animated defensive coordinator, began winding through a baseball metaphor while discussing linebacker Abdul Carter. According to Diaz, successful pitchers "don't need 13 pitches" when they have a dominant fastball. So, he tells Carter, let's make sure we're perfecting your fastball.
"To go 1-0 every week, that has a lot more to do with your fastball than it does with your third or fourth pitch," Diaz said. So what is Carter's fastball? Diaz chose a fascinating one.
"You can see his short-area quickness," Diaz said. "So whether that’s in his ability to make plays in the run game inside the box, whether it’s rushing the passer as we saw a year ago chasing down quarterbacks, he's got great acceleration and start and stop."
Diaz returning to Penn State for a second season marked one of the program's great offseason successes. Diaz coordinated a 2022 defense that ranked among the nation's top 10 in scoring, turnover margin, sacks, tackles for loss, passes defended, red-zone defense and fumbles forced. The Lions fielded a three-level unit that had six starters named All-Big Ten. Diaz brought an aggressive tenor to the defense that players loved. Now, Diaz plans to bring more in Year 2. And he can turn a phrase as well as any defensive coordinator out there.
During a recent media session in State College, Diaz discussed his expectations for Penn State's 2023 defense, including several high-profile players. He did so quite quotably.
'I call it the Matrix Moment'
Referencing the 1999 Keanu Reeves movie, Diaz found another way to raise anticipation for Carter, Penn State's returning All-Big Ten linebacker. Carter has so many potent skills, including that short-area quickness Diaz described, along with a year of playing time during which he developed them. That makes Carter one of the Big Ten's most intriguing linebackers.
"He has great belief in his abilities when he’s out there," Diaz said. "Being able to hone those things and have an understanding of what’s going on around him, I call it the 'Matrix moment' when the game slows down and you see the 0s and 1s floating in space. That’s when you really have that moment when you begin to realize you don’t have to do things with a cape on. The game becomes slower and much more simple, which, for a guy with his short-area quickness, it will become even scarier."
'Do we have that guy right now?'
Safety Ji'Ayir Brown, now tearing it up with the San Francisco 49ers, changed how Penn State's defense played third downs last year. The Lions call it the "prowler" package, which deploys a defensive back as a pass-rusher in certain situations. Brown thrived in the role, finishing third on the team with 4.5 sacks. Diaz has identified several candidates to assume the role but is unsure whether anyone's truly capable of replacing Brown.
"I don’t know if we’ll have one guy that can be it because [Brown] was so unique, so special," Diaz said. "... The bigger thing with a guy like [Brown] was his leadership. This is a rare player who, when he spoke, everyone in the locker room stopped and turned to hear what he was saying. Do we have that guy right now? I don’t know that we do. That’s why I say summer workouts is where that’s forged. We weren’t talking about [Brown] in that way this time last year. That’s a thing that develops over the course of a team. We do need someone to step up and assume that role from a leadership standpoint and certainly with his versatility on third down."
'When you throw it where No. 4 is, you may not get it back'
Diaz said that cornerback Kalen King, a projected first-round NFL Draft pick in 2024, was among the nation's best defensive backs last season. King made three interceptions, including a game-changer in the Rose Bowl victory over Utah that underscored his ability to flip momentum.
Diaz described King's range of skills, including his ability to stay square at the line of scrimmage and play through the catch, but also his confidence in those abilities. As a result, King plays taller and stronger. He also has one more important trait of game-changing cornerbacks.
"Kalen can catch it, so he can punish you," Diaz said. "... When you throw it where No. 4 is, you may not get it back. That really makes offenses and quarterbacks have to think twice after going after him. He doesn't leave his guy open very often, and when you try it anyway, it may be a turnover. That gives you great value. We obviously play a little more man [coverage], and he fit in starting last spring and was one of the really key players during spring practice. Everyone talked about [Joey Porter, Jr.] for great reason, but Kalen King played at a level in my mind as good as any corner in the country a year ago."
'So here's our blessing and our curse'
Penn State's defense lost key players at every level: PJ Mustipher up front, captain Jonathan Sutherland at linebacker and Porter in the secondary. But it also returns key players at every level and has a surfeit of reinforcements who make the defense deeper and more explosive. Hence, Diaz's statement.
"So here’s our blessing and our curse," Diaz said. "At every position, we have a lot of guys who have played, so we know that they know they can go into a high-level Big Ten game and function and play well. The question is, who’s going to be the ace? Because at almost every position we lost the ace: Ji'Ayir Brown, Joey Porter, Jr., Sutherland at linebacker, Nick Tarburton and PJ Mustipher [on the defensive line]. We really lost some key guys. So who’s going to step up from a leadership standpoint, and who knows that my level of consistency has to be there week in and week out? That’s really what happens when you’re the A player, when you've got to bring it every down, every rep. That to me is the difference."
'I don't think Abdul Carter came here to be mediocre in anything'
Last word on Carter, who could be the defense's most intriguing player this season. Diaz can play Carter at a variety of positions, including as an edge rusher on leverage downs. So Diaz and the coaching staff have high expectations of Carter. But apparently not as high as Carter has for himself.
"I don’t think Abdul came here to be mediocre in anything," Diaz said. "I don’t think he came here to be part of a mediocre team in any way, shape or form. And I think it stands to reason that, the more he played a year ago, the better we played. He helped raise our level of play. And now it's on to year 2. I just told him, 'What you did a year ago isn’t good enough anymore. There’s got to be some sort of development and improvement. Otherwise, we’re just settling for what was.' And I don’t think Abdul wants to do that."
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AllPennState is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on Twitter @MarkWogenrich. And consider subscribing (button's on the home page) for more great content across the SI.com network.
