During a particularly challenging start to the 2020 season for Penn State’s secondary, head coach James Franklin was asked directly about the performances of the Nittany Lions’ safeties.

Though only two games had been played, losses to Indiana and then-No. 3-ranked Ohio State revealed glaring deficiencies within the unit, which Franklin acknowledged in his weekly press conference on Nov. 3. For a position group that had boasted three players with extensive experience in Lamont Wade, Jaquan Brisker, and Jonathan Sutherland coming into the season, plus junior college transfer Ji’Ayir Brown, that they’d come up so short came as both a surprise and disappointment to that point in the year.

“When you go back and you watch that tape, and you talk to Coach Banks, and you talk about the production that we've had at the safety position, not just at that position, but really across the board at every position, I think we were capable of playing at a higher level,” Franklin said.

Though the Nittany Lions would struggle through three more weeks of disappointing performances defensively, Franklin’s optimism was eventually rewarded in the improved play of a four-game winning streak to close the season. And with it, Penn State’s safeties helped a secondary that ultimately ended as the nation’s No. 24-ranked unit for passing yards allowed (198.6 ypg) and 49th in team passing efficiency (131.06), with a rushing defense ranked 26th (130.2 ypg) and an overall total defense ranked 17th at just 328.8 ypg during the shortened 2020 schedule.

Given his prior comments regarding Banks, the Nittany Lions’ safeties coach dating back to his hiring before the 2016 season, Franklin’s optimism appeared to be well-founded. Having helped advance the program in its highly successful stretch of seasons between 2016-’20, Banks was often credited as an instrumental influence to the success of the Nittany Lions’ defense.

“Coach Banks has done a great job with developing (the safeties),” Franklin said during the 2019 season. “He's a great resource for Coach Pry as our co-defensive coordinator, a guy that has been a defensive coordinator for 15 years before coming to Penn State. I think that's valuable because they're not only being coached by one of the better if not the best safety coach in the country, but also a guy that thinks big picture and understands how all the parts fit together. Hs coordinating experience, I think helps from that standpoint.”

New Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel agrees with the sentiment.

As reported Monday afternoon by Yahoo! Sports national college football reporter Pete Thamel, Banks is in line to assume the defensive coordinator position for the Volunteers, pending the finalization of his deal.

More than any statistic is likely to demonstrate Banks’ impact at Penn State, this is a move that will invariably be viewed as a loss for the Nittany Lions moving forward. A tremendous asset to Penn State on the recruiting trail, particularly in helping to open doors to Michigan recruiting that helped deliver nine of the state’s brightest prospects to the Nittany Lions during his tenure, Banks also engendered confidence both from the program’s coaching staff as well as its players.

“It’s been a heck of an experience being able to be coached up by Coach Banks,” former Penn State safety Garrett Taylor said in his senior year with the Nittany Lions. “I think that culture that we have in the safety room, everyone is held to a high standard in terms of how you approach the game and how you play the game and what's expected of you when you're out there.

“I’m excited to see what the safety room is going to do the next couple of years and I think it's going to be special.”

A capable developer of talent, Banks also helped coach Troy Apke, Marcus Allen, and Nick Scott into NFL Draft selections. Since 2018, it is tied with Penn State’s corners for a position group with the most picks sent to the next level.

Meanwhile, he was also considered a critical sounding board to defensive coordinator Brent Pry in recent seasons, helping to shape a Penn State defensive unit that finished with a top 25 scoring defense in three of his five seasons in the program, highlighted by 2019’s No. 8-ranked mark of 16.0 ppg. Part of a development that Franklin highlighted on a staff-wide basis, he indicated that those improvements paid dividends yearly.

“I think our coaches have gotten better. They get better every single year,” Franklin said. “I think Brent's ability to work with his staff, as well as Tim's experience as a coordinator, I think they complement each other very well.”

While Banks’ move would inevitably lead to another round of qualified candidates to fill his vacated position on the staff, something that has happened frequently throughout Franklin’s tenure of seven full years at Penn State, it would nonetheless amount to one of the bigger ones in the prism of Franklin’s time with the program.

Losing a comfort level with Banks that had been described in familial terms dating back to their time on the same staff at Maryland during the 2003-’04 seasons, the search for a replacement will no doubt be an intriguing one to watch moving forward.

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