Report: Anthony Poindexter Leaving Purdue for Penn State

According to a report from Pete Thamel, Penn State has found its new safety coach in Anthony Poindexter.

If you remember, Poindexter was a star safety at Virginia. He earned All-American honors in 1999, had his number retired at Virginia in 2009, and was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2020.

After three years in the NFL, Poindexter made the transition to coaching at — you guessed it — Virginia, spending 11 seasons with his alma mater from 2003-2013. Since leaving Charlottesville, Poindexter served as UConn’s defensive coordinator from 2014-2016, and most recently was Purdue’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2017-2020.

Poindexter is known as a tremendous recruiter, specifically in the Tidewater region of Virginia, and the DMV area as a whole. When you combine that with the fact that Poindexter has spent the last 12 years coaching safeties — in addition to his seven years in a coordinator role — and this seems like a strong hire by James Franklin.