Penn State Coaching Search

Every site is coming up with lists of coaches that Penn State should target. Those lists are always the same, and they are almost always the same names we are hearing for Florida, Oklahoma State, UCLA, and Virginia Tech. Unlike those other sites, I am going to give you lots of names, and lots of information. You have been warned.

I think we need to break this up into some different groups
1. Crazy Fan Ideas
2. Super Long-shots
3. Coordinators Getting Their Shot
4. Kind of Insane
5. Good Ideas
6. The Home Run

1. Crazy Fan Ideas
Penn State fans have been throwing out some crazy names. Let me just mention these people and tell you that these are not happening.
Nick Saban-why would he come out of retirement for the Penn State job? He already made boatloads of money.
Dabo Swinney-he is not leaving Clemson, and if he does, do we want a guy who refuses to adapt to the transfer portal?
Kirby Smart-Are we going to compete with Georgia from a financial standpoint? Didn’t Smart play at Georgia? He is not leaving.
Mike Tomlin-What?
John Harbaugh-Okay, I joked about this one with some folks, it would be funny if the Ravens fired him, Penn State hired him, he wins a Natty faster than his brother did at Michigan. 
Kenny Dillingham-I am not sure why folks are mentioning him for this job. Yeah, he turned Arizona State around, but I do not think he is interested in leaving ASU. He went to school there. He grew up in the area. It was like his lifelong dream to be the coach of the Sun Devils. He ain’t leaving, although he will probably take the meetings with all of these schools and get a nice raise from ASU.
Mike Elko-Another crazy name people mention. If they do bring him in for an interview, it will cause the Aggies to give dip into their oil donor money and give him a raise. 

2. Super Long-Shots
I think these would probably be very good hires, but I just think the odds are like next to zero.
Jon Gruden-it almost happened back in the day, and his name keeps popping up. 
Urban Meyer-ugh, can we not do this again? Listen, I think he could get us over the hump, but at what cost? Are we willing to sell our souls?
Lane Kiffin-I am not against this one. I just do not see it happening. Is Penn State a better job than Ole Miss? I suppose the advantage of PSU would be that it is not in the SEC, and he would have an easier path to the playoffs each year. I think just like Elko and Dillingham, he is going to turn all of these rumors into a significant pay raise.
Kliff Kingsbury-Does Kliff even want to get back into head coaching? If he does, he probably wants to stay in the NFL. I would not be opposed to him. I just do not think it is a real option.

3. Coordinators Getting Their Shot
Who is the next Kirby Smart or Dan Lanning? Some OC or DC out there who is at some prestige program, who is just waiting for their chance??? For every Smart or Lanning, there are way more guys who failed…especially going from top tier program to another high level program (look at Joe Moorehead going to Mississippi State or Brent Pry to VA Tech). Hell, look at how long it has taken Brent Venables to find success at Oklahoma. 
Joe Brady-The OC for the Buffalo Bills. He was a GA at Penn State from 2015-2016. He was also at LSU in 2019 as the passing coordinator & WR Coach. He seems like a brilliant guy, who is great with QBs and WRs. I also feel like his name will be mentioned for every head coaching job in the NFL and the other colleges.
Will Stein-The OC for the Oregon Ducks. He has only been an OC for like two seasons, and before that he was at UTSA in a variety of roles. I just do not know if the experience is there. 
Todd Monken-The OC for the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Georgia OC for their two national championships. He could be looking for a head coaching job, and he may want to go back to college. 
Kevin Patullo-The OC for the Philadelphia Eagles. I have seen his name mentioned a few times, and I think it might be a joke from disgruntled Eagles fans. But enough people scream it, the algorithms think it is legit, and then some member of the Board of Trustees reads it, and goes “hey, this guy is from Philly, we should look at him.” He is not originally from Philly, but ChatGPT will not be able to figure that out.
Glenn Schumann-The DC for the Georgia Bulldogs. Meh, not much I can say about this one, maybe they interview him?
Jim Knowles-The DC for the Penn State Nittany Lions. I do not know if he would throw his name into the ring, nor if he should. Not sure he has any desire to be a head coach. Not sure if the defensive performance warrants a discussion.
Andy Kotelnicki-The OC for the Penn State Nittany Lions. His name was linked to the West Virginia job last off-season. I do not know if he is head coach material, but it would be interesting to see what his offense would look like if he was totally in charge.
Brian Hartline-The OC for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Look, if you cannot beat them, just take their entire staff and hope to recreate them. Hartline has been the receivers coach, and if you notice, he has recruited and developed some of the best receivers in the game. I would be quite alright with this choice. And listen, this may sound crazy, but if Hartline takes the job, I think he should bring Larry Johnson Sr. back as DC, and make Tony Johnson (who has been on the Ohio State staff as an Analyst) the WR Coach. 

4. Kind of Insane
These are just nutty. But unlike the first group, these are probably doable, but just not great ideas. And we can have a little fun with these ones. 
Bill O’Brien-I am going to piss some people off with this one. I do not think he is a good head coach. I think he exceeded expectations in the two years here. And listen, I do not want to diminish his achievements here. But what did he do with the Texans? Not much. Then he becomes the OC for Alabama, and has some very public disagreements with Nick Saban. As the OC and a former NFL coach, the best job he could get was Boston College? They are 1-5 this year with the only win being Fordham. They got blown out by Pitt. Yikes. We can do better.
Dan Connor-Yeah, the former Penn State linebacker, who is currently the linebackers coach at PENN STATE! 
Trace McSorley-Another former player who is on the staff. But come on, Trace as a head coach??? OH MY GOD, can you imagine the swagger? I do not hate it.
Michael Robinson-Former player, led one of the greatest comeback drives in college football history. I also had a class with him, he was a cool dude. And he was on Young & the Restless, he met Victor! Not sure if that qualifies him to be a coach, but it cannot hurt.
LaVar Arrington-Yeah, he has no coaching experience. But I think he would truly turn Penn State into Linebacker U. Probably hand out helmet stickers for fighting punters. Maybe we make him a DC. 

5. Good Ideas
This is a bunch of names. I can talk myself into any of these coaches, and at the same time bring up some bad points for each one. 
Brent Key-Georgia Tech-having a great season. Has a winning record against higher ranked opponents (7-6). But another guy coaching at his alma mater, but the money will be better at Penn State. 
Lance Leipold-Kansas-He has some big wins over top ten teams, but then he has some losses once his teams were ranked to unranked teams. So yay? He has worked his way up the coaching ranks, Nebraska-Omaha (assistant coach)–>Wisconsin-Whitewater–>Buffalo–>Kansas. I can respect that.
Clark Lea-Vanderbilt-it would be kind of funny to hire Franklin’s replacement from Vanderbilt. He has won some big games recently, but his record against higher ranked teams is still 2-16. We should look elsewhere.
Alex Golesh-South Florida-I have been saying since last year that Golesh will get a P4 job soon. He seems like a good coach. Solid record at USF, he has some big wins there. Plus he was born in Russia. Downside, is he ready for a job like Penn State? 
Fran Brown-Syracuse-a coaching disciple of Matt Rhule, was with him at Temple & Baylor. He is a great recruiter. He also worked with Manny Diaz at Temple, and was on the Georgia staff that won a national championship. His first season at Syracuse went pretty well. He could be ready for a big time job.
Manny Diaz-Duke-The former DC. Penn State fans love him. He has plenty of head coaching experience (Temple, Miami, Duke). The downside to me is that his time at Miami was a bit of a disaster. It seemed like the pressure got to him.
Ryan Silverfield-Memphis-48-20 in five seasons at Memphis. He has been at Memphis in some role since 2016, and when Mike Norvell went to FSU, they promoted Silverfield to interim HC, then gave him the job. He has an interesting path to coaching. He did not play college football. He started coaching during his senior year (not sure what the story is there, and then has bounced around a ton). 
Dan Mullen-UNLV-He is from Pennsylvania. He has the resume. Worked under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida. He then became the head coach of Mississippi State where he had some success, which he left for Florida after Meyer left. He underperformed there, then was fired after a few the start of a bad season….hmmm, maybe we let him stay at UNLV.
Jon Sumrall-Tulane-This guy wins. He won the Sun Belt both seasons he was at Troy, and then at Tulane, he continued their winning ways. He is ready for a big time job. 
Matt Campbell-Iowa State-He has proven that he can win in the Big Xii at traditional football powerhouse, Iowa State. He did well at Toledo. Urban Meyer wanted him on his staff at Ohio State, but Campbell decided to stay Toledo (and look, I may not like Meyer, but the man knows how to pick a staff). What I am saying is, I think Campbell would be a good hire.
Matt Rhule-Nebraska-Last, but not least…Rhule is the guy so many people are clamoring for right now. He was a walk-on at Penn State, he is from the area! He loves Penn State! Yes, those are all true. But you know what else is true? He has two wins against ranked teams. TWO! And those came while he was at Temple (against #21 East Carolina and #20 Navy). He has not beat a ranked team since then. I know, everyone points to his quick turnaround of Baylor and how remarkable of a job he did there. But what did he do at Carolina? What has he done at Nebraska? 17-14, 0-7 against ranked teams. I think he would do a good job at Penn State, but I also think he would bring the same struggles against the top teams that James Franklin brought. 

6. The Home Run
Curt Cignetti-Indiana
ALL HE DOES IS WIN! Look at his track record…on the original staff at Alabama with Saban. Before that he was at NC State and he was responsible for coaching Philip Rivers, and then recruiting in Russell Wilson. Who did he recruit and develop while at ‘Bama? Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, and Dont’a Hightower. He knows talent. He then goes to IUP, and turns them into a D-II powerhouse. Turns that into a job at Elon, where he gets them to the FCS playoffs. After that he takes the James Madison job. Makes the FCS Championship in year one. Continues to dominate, then the university moves up to FBS. And guess what? He continues to win. They win their Sun Belt division. 

And now he is at Indiana. They went from a laughing-stock, to one of the top teams in the country. They just beat #3 Oregon. Before that they absolutely demolished Illinois. Cignetti has proven that he can win, and that he can adapt. Last year people said his defense was a little suspect, this year it is one of the Hoosier’s strengths.

He comes to Penn State, he wins a national championship. That is my bold prediction.