{"id":315856,"date":"2025-11-29T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315856\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T05:56:10","slug":"former-nfl-head-coach-gaining-momentum-for-penn-state-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315856\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL Head Coach Gaining Momentum for Penn State Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Ole Miss and LSU wait to hear what decision Lane Kiffin makes on Saturday, several other college football<\/a> teams are getting closer to filling their head-coaching vacancies.<\/p>\n

Among those is Penn State<\/a>, which is seemingly the only premier school with a head-coach opening that hasn\u2019t been linked to Kiffin over the last month.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions would presumably like to find their successor to James Franklin sooner rather than later given the fact that their 2026 recruiting class has been taking blow after blow lately.<\/p>\n

In recent days, Penn State lost several four-star commits including offensive tackle Marlen Bright, tight end Pierce Petersohn, and running back Messiah Mickens, who have all committed to Franklin and Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n

More News: Urban Meyer Recruiting \u2018Up-and-Coming\u2019 Head Coach to Florida: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

More News: Coveted College Football Playoff Coach Sets Deadline to Decide Future<\/a><\/p>\n

In total, Penn State has lost 19 commits<\/a> in the month-plus since it fired Franklin.<\/p>\n

The popular pick among analysts and sportsbooks to land the Penn State job is James Madison head coach Bob Chesney, but according to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos there\u2019s another name fans should keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Nittany Lions continue to keep their coaching search as low-profile as possible,\u201d Nakos wrote<\/a>. \u201cNick Saban said earlier this week that former New York Giants<\/a> head coach Brian Daboll would be an \u2018outstanding hire\u2019 for the Nittany Lions. Sources have said there has at least been some informal contact with Daboll and Penn State.\u201d<\/p>\n

More News: Alabama Loses Key Member Day Before Iron Bowl vs Auburn<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

More News: $15 Million Head Coach Accepts Major SEC Job: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Saban recently gave Daboll, who’s seen his odds of landing the PSU job take a small jump up to 10% according to Kalshi, a ringing endorsement on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show,\u201d all but making the case why PSU should hire the former Giants HC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Brian,\u201d Saban said<\/a>. \u201cHe did a great job here for us as our offensive coordinator. We won the championship with him calling the plays. He\u2019s been in the Super Bowl several times with Bill Belichick and won.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very good coach, he\u2019s a bright guy, he\u2019s a good recruiter, he relates well to the players, he\u2019s a good teacher, he\u2019s got a good offensive mind, he\u2019ll be able to put a good staff together. I think that would be an outstanding hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Daboll isn\u2019t Penn State\u2019s guy, Nakos believes there\u2019s two candidates that could be considered the frontrunners.<\/p>\n

\u201cSources continue to also bring up James Madison head coach Bob Chesney\u2019s name,\u201d Nakos added. \u201cInterim head coach Terry Smith is another realistic candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Ole Miss and LSU wait to hear what decision Lane Kiffin makes on Saturday, several other college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,594,704,1242,593,3374,85],"class_list":["post-315856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-college-football","tag-ncaa","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-penn-state","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}