Penn State football roundtable: Here’s who we think will get the head coach job
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Penn State fires James Franklin
The James Franklin era is over at Penn State.
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Penn State has been searching for a head football coach for over a month after firing James Franklin in the middle of October. Candidates have emerged, including some in high-profile positions.
How good is the job? What should Penn State prioritize? Who will Penn State AD Pat Kraft hire? We’ve shared who we would hire if we were in charge, but below are picks from CDT reporters Jon Sauber, Josh Moyer and Bret Pallotto on how we think the search will go down.
How good is the Penn State job and why?
Jon Sauber: Top 15.
The Penn State job is an interesting one because it has full financial commitment from its athletic department to be all in on football, but it does not have the outside help that programs like Oregon and Texas Tech have. That is to say, there is no massive benefactor bankrolling the program’s NIL to help it get whoever it wants. That’s what puts it just outside the top 10 for me, probably somewhere around 11 or 12. The benefit to that is that the program isn’t championship-or-bust based on what one donor wants — which is why a job like Texas Tech could open despite a very successful season — but it would still be higher up if it had more help from the outside.
Josh Moyer: Top 10.
I’m hesitant to place it in the top 5, but I feel comfortable saying it belongs in the top 10. Penn State’s athletic department is self-supporting, putting it in limited company, and its annual revenue typically places it nationally in the top 10. It has one of the largest fan bases in the country and one of the largest stadiums in the world. In other words, college football is full of haves and have-nots — and Penn State is mostly definitely near the top of the haves. Sure, the nearby airport is small. But show me 10 athletic programs that can provide greater resources than PSU, and I’ll consider changing my ranking.
Bret Pallotto: Top 15, but I’m not going to put up a fight if you say top 10.
I think you can easily name eight other jobs that are better before it becomes a matter of personal preference. The Penn State job, in my view, is better than Tennessee and Florida, but not quite at the level of LSU. Leave yourself some wiggle room to consider Oregon and Texas A&M, and top 15 is the safe answer.
What’s the most important attribute PSU should look for in a new head coach?
Sauber: Ability to run a program like a CEO.
College football is ever-changing, and the most important aspects of being a head coach have much less to do with coaching than they used to. The new leader needs to be able to excel at managing a locker room, hiring elite staff members and being willing to defer to and trust the coordinators and coaches they hire. That is part of why Franklin found as much success as he did. He was able to handle some of the CEO aspects better than most — but not enough of them. The next hire will need to excel in all of the non-coaching facets of running a program in order to get the Nittany Lions where they want to go.
Moyer: Track record of winning big games.
The reason James Franklin was fired, the reason Penn State fans have long been unsatisfied, is that Franklin could never win the big game. He went 4-21 against AP top-10 teams and, even if you take away Ohio State and Michigan, he still finished 3-7 against such teams — despite being favored in four of those games. Penn State needs to find a coach capable of taking down the best teams in the country — duh — so the obvious move here would be to hire someone who’s already proven he can do that. (Sorry, Bob Chesney. Give it a few years.) That doesn’t mean coordinators are off the table. But that does mean any coach who’s lost more top-10 ranked games than they were favored in, well, they should be eliminated from consideration yesterday.
Pallotto: A top recruiter in the NIL era.
Put another way, “It’s not the X’s and the O’s but the Jimmys and the Joes.” Talent can help you overcome a lot of different things or, in Penn State’s case, get you over the hump. This isn’t a novel concept, but it has changed in the NIL era with roster retention and the transfer portal.
Who will Penn State hire and why?
Sauber: Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko
I feel confident in saying that if Elko wants the job, he will have it. There will be roadblocks because he’s highly likely to lead the Aggies to the College Football Playoff, which will impact when he would be able to accept the job, but he’s a good enough coach to wait out. Elko, notably, has yet to sign a contract extension with Texas A&M despite being undefeated and underpaid at $7 million before he hits any incentives in his contract. I find that very interesting.
Moyer: Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz
Will Penn State wait to hire a coach until after the College Football Playoff? I’m not so sure. But Drinkwitz seems like the safest pick to me from Penn State’s perspective. A home-run hire like Kalen DeBoer would be ideal, but Drinkwitz is realistic. Missouri already has three losses, and Drinkwitz has shown he can build a program in a tough conference. Plus, he’s already done a much better job with the transfer portal than Penn State has.
Pallotto: Duke head coach Manny Diaz
He’s remembered fondly in Happy Valley, where he was a semifinalist for the award that is given to the nation’s best assistant coach in college football. And among some of the top options rumored to be out there, such as Lane Kiffin or Brian Kelly, the fit seems less than ideal. There’s a strong case for Mike Elko or Clark Lea, but I’d lean toward the university selecting Diaz.
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 1:33 PM.
