Penn State loses safeties coach to Tennessee

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The Nittany Lions have just lost another key member of their coaching staff to the Tennessee Volunteers.

After losing defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to Tennessee just a few weeks ago, safeties coach Anthony Poindexter has followed him to Knoxville. He spent the previous five seasons with the Nittany Lions as their safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator. Now with the Volunteers, he will split secondary coaching duties with Michael Hunter, the former assistant secondary coach with Ohio State.

This comes after Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel fired both defensive coordinator and safeties coach Tim Banks, as well as Willie Martinez, a secondary coach.

During his time in Happy Valley, Poindexter oversaw the careers of four future NFL draft picks: Kevin Winston Jr., Jaylen Reed, Jaquan Brisker, and Ji’Ayir Brown.

Before his time in Happy Valley, Poindexter spent four years as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach with Purdue, and also spent three years in the same roles at UConn as well. He spent the first eleven years of his coaching career at his alma mater, Virginia.

This continues with a major defensive coaching overhaul for Heupel and Tennessee. In fact, only two coaches have been retained by the Volunteers on the defensive side of the football. However, with their secondary play being abysmal this year, Heupel found it necessary to rehaul things.

This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Penn State loses safeties coach to Tennessee

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