New Penn State assistant Anthony Poindexter made the right decision to go into coaching

A two-time consensus All-America safety at Virginia, Anthony Poindexter realized that he would have a limited career playing professional football after suffering a season-ending knee injury during his senior year with the Cavaliers.

So after retiring from a short NFL career in 2001, Poindexter decided to make the transition from playing to coaching. After 11 years at Virginia, three at Connecticut and four at Purdue, Poindexter accepted a new job last month at Penn State, where he is co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

It might have been a difficult decision for Poindexter, a College Football Hall of Famer and a member of the Baltimore Ravens’ 2000 Super Bowl championship team, but it was the correct one.

“Obviously after the knee injury, you’re standing there and you’re like, ‘I don’t really know how much farther I can go in ball,’” Poindexter said Monday in a Zoom conference call with reporters. “I knew I wouldn’t come back and ever be 100%.

“I got a shot in the league. I played two years, got cut the third year but the whole time I was like, ‘What can I do to still be in football and impact young people’s lives?’ I got the great opportunity to go back and coach under Al Groh at the University of Virginia. That’s how I started my career and it’s been the best thing I’ve done.”

» READ MORE: Penn State hires College Football Hall of Famer Anthony Poindexter as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach

Poindexter, 44, said he learned much from the various coaches he has played for and worked with. One of his biggest influences was former Virginia head coach George Welsh, a former Penn State assistant who led the Cavaliers for 19 seasons until his retirement in 2000.

Poindexter said he did not find Welsh to be an easy man to talk to, but he discovered a new side of him when he considered leaving college for the NFL Draft after his junior year. He spoke to Welsh about it and the coach’s answer of “You need to do what’s best for your family” surprised him.

“I never thought he felt that way,” he said. “I thought he would be more like, ‘You need to stay.’ But once we had that conversation, I knew how much he cared for me. He respected me as a person, as a player, and he respected my upbringing and what my family situation was.

“I love him to death. He passed (in January 2019) and I got a chance to speak at his memorial, which was a great honor for me. But he just really impacted my life and impacted, really, my coaching career and how I look at coaching.”

Poindexter said he first met Penn State head coach James Franklin right after he became a full-time assistant at Virginia. They both had the same recruiting areas, and they kept up with each other through the years.

“I’ve been watching him from afar knowing the great work he was doing with the teams at Vanderbilt and obviously here at Penn State,” he said. “So we’ve just been friends.

“We didn’t talk a few times about job openings that he had, it just wasn’t the right timing. But this year was the right time and I felt good about my family and myself and the situation that I was coming to. So it was just the right time to join his staff.”

Poindexter appreciates the reception he has received from the Penn State players, especially the safeties who played for Tim Banks, his predecessor, who spent five years with the Nittany Lions.

“I think they’ve been very open with me,” he said, “and really trying to just understand my style, my method, and really helping me along the way, teaching me the defense as well and how they do things here. So I’m excited just to work with them. They’re great kids.”

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Drew Allar, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound quarterback from Medina, Ohio, has given an oral commitment to Penn State to join the freshman class of 2022. Allar, rated four stars by 247Sports and Rivals, also had offers from Notre Dame, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Iowa and South Carolina, among others. He is the second four-star quarterback to commit to the Nittany Lions’ 2022 class, joining Beau Pribula of York, Pa.