Well, this is not exactly the coaching news we were hoping to read. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, current Penn State defensive end coach Deion Barnes is headed to South Carolina, where he will coach the defensive ends and outside linebackers.
Considering the fact that Matt Campbell did not bring in his own defensive end and linebacker coaches from Iowa State with him and that Barnes did not follow James Franklin down to Virginia Tech, there was hope that it would ultimately be announced that he would stick
around in Happy Valley, where he suited up for four years as a player from 2011-2014 and later came back as a graduate assistant and later defensive end coach, where he was responsible for coaching up guys such as future NFL first-rounders Abdul Carter and Chop Robinson.
Who Campbell chooses to replace Barnes remains to be seen. For now though, this feels like a blow, not only from a coaching standpoint, but also from a player retention standpoint, as certain defensive linemen who may have been swayed to stay might enter the transfer portal, instead.
