Penn State’s coaching search has been mostly quiet since athletic director Pat Kraft fired James Franklin back in October. The Nittany Lions don’t appear to be much closer to replacing Franklin now than they were then, but the opening has already had a major impact on college football.
With Penn State, along with LSU, Florida, and Auburn all open, top coaches all over the country are using that leverage for a major payday. On Thursday, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz landed a new six-year contract, and on Friday, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea locked down a similarly lucrative six-year deal. Drinkwitz and Lea join Curt Cignetti, Matt Rhule, Mike Elko, and other Power 4 head coaches who are staying put this offseason with new deals in place.
With Drinkwitz and Lea off the board, Penn State’s coaching search narrows even further. It seems incredibly unlikely, aside from the far-fetched dreams of Kalen DeBoer being run out of Tuscaloosa after an Iron Bowl loss, that a proven P4 head coach lands in Happy Valley. So, Kraft will have to look outside the box, and these three candidates appear to be the most realistic options left for the Nittany Lions.
As Penn State’s top options all come off the board, it’s looking more and more like James Madison head coach Bob Chesney is the favorite to end up in Happy Valley. Heading into the final week of the regular season, Chesney is 19-5 through two years in Harrisonburg after turning Holy Cross into an FCC contender.
The Pennsylvania native has ties to the Northeast and has had success at every level. 10 or even five years ago, Penn State would’ve gotten Curt Cignetti from Indiana. However, now that every program can attract talent as long as it is willing to spend, Cignetti is staying put in Bloomington, and Penn State has hope that it lands the next Cignetti.
Proven Power 4 head coaches, at least the ones Penn State has been after, aren’t going to be on the move this offseason. So, Pat Kraft will either need to bet on a Group of Six head coach or a Power 4 coordinator to lead the program. If he’s going the coordinator route, the two best options are in the Big Ten: Ohio State’s Brian Hartline and Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein.
As for Hartline, he’s an elite recruiter. In a revenue-sharing world, that may not be as important as it was in the past, but he’s a proven play-caller as well. The 39-year-old is probably the biggest upside swing that the Nittany Lions could take.
If Penn State completely strikes out, Kraft may just hand the reins to interim head coach Terry Smith full-time. Smith is getting an interview for the role, as current and former players advocate for Kraft to keep the former wide receiver at Penn State. That doesn’t mean it would make any sense.
Kraft fired Franklin because it was time for a change. The best argument for Smith is that he’d keep things mostly the same, keeping the roster and coaching staff mostly intact this offseason. Smith is 2-3 as the interim head coach, with two top-five losses and two blown fourth-quarter leads. That’s far from the type of undeniable success with a roster that was built to compete for a national title that Smith would need to win the job.