What had been rumored for several days is now official. Penn State safeties coach Brian Norwood has accepted the defensive coordinator job at Baylor.
If you're wondering how the heck Brian Norwood's name got thrown in the ring for a job at Baylor, he and Baylor head coach Art Briles were assistant coaches together at Texas Tech in 2000. So there you have it.
Obviously we're sorry to see Norwood go. In his six years as a defensive back coach he has developed NFL talent like Shawn Mayer, Calvin Lowry, and current All Big Ten player Anthony Scirrotto. He was a good coach and he will be missed.
Possible ramifications of this include the recruitment of Texas safety D'Anton Lynn. Lynn was very fond of Norwood who would have been his position coach at Penn State. It's unclear at this time how it's going to affect Lynn, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he reopened his recruiting and started looking around again.
If I had the ability to pick a replacement for Norwood I would go after former Penn State All-American safety Darrin Perry. Perry wrapped up his seven year NFL career in 2000 having played most of his pro career for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since then he has taken different assistant coaching jobs with the Bengals, Steelers, and currently the Raiders. We probably couldn't offer him a salary anything close to what he's making in the NFL. But we can offer him a job at Penn State, which has to be more respectful than coaching for the Raiders, doesn't it?
So in conclusion I don't want to wrap this up without saying congratulations to coach Norwood. He's been a good coach for us and this is a fantastic opportunity for him. BSD wishes him well in all of his future endeavors.