Penn State hires defensive assistant coach Tim Banks

With Monday morning’s announced hiring of Tim Banks as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach, Penn State football’s final offseason personnel piece is in place.

Banks most recently was a co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Illinois, from 2012-15.

“I am excited to have Tim join our Penn State football family,” said head coach James Franklin, in a statement. “Tim and I worked together at Maryland and built a great relationship there. He is a veteran coach with experience as a Big Ten coordinator and has strong Big Ten and regional recruiting ties.

“He is a fantastic persona and will have a strong impact on our players and our program.”

Banks has had coaching experience since 1997 at various programs and has mostly specialized in the secondary.

He was a co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Cinncinati from 2010-11, defensive coordinator at his alma mater Central Michigan from 2007-09, a defensive backs and inside linebackers coach at Maryland from 2003-05, served a year apiece prior at Memphis and Bowling Green as a defensive backs and inside linebackers coach and defensive backs and running backs coach, respectively. Banks’ career starte at Ferris State in 1997, where he spent a year coaching the defensive backs.

“I am excited about having an opportunity to work with coach Franklin and his staff,” said Banks in a released statement, in which he also called Franklin “one of the brightest football minds in the country.”

“It was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Growing up in the Midwest, I saw Penn State play almost every weekend and I know the history and the tradition that this program has, so this is very much an honor and a humbling experience.”

Penn State’s presumably-final hire of the offseason joins many changes faced by the team and its related personnel.

A handful of coaching transitions have occurred, first at the end of the regular-season with the firing of offensive coordinator John Donovan and the hiring of Joe Moorhead to replace him. Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop left the program for a lateral position at Tennessee, and offensive line coach Herb Hand did the same days later at Auburn. Brent Pry was promoted to linebackers coach while interim offensive coordinator of Penn State’s bowl game, Ricky Rahne, was shifted to tight ends coach and passing game coordinator as Moorhead specializes in quarterbacks. Most recently, Matt Limegrover was hired to coach the offensive line.

Players have undergone some internal changes of their own, as well. Quarterback Christian Hackenberg and defensive lineman Austin Johnson announced their departures for the NFL immediately after the season. Tight end Adam Breneman announced his career’s end due to injury, and a slew of transfers were made public, including receiver Geno Lewis, running back Akeel Lynch, linebacker Troy Reeder, linebacker Gary Wooten Jr. and cornerback Daquan Worley.

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Penn State hires defensive assistant coach Tim Banks."