The Penn State Nittany Lions received some great and relieving news this week when it was announced that former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell was taking over the same position for the program. If you would have told anyone before the search began to replace James Franklin that Campbell was the choice, most would have at least been intrigued by the option. While the result may have ended up being good, this is a situation where the process was horrible. 

For days leading up to the Campbell announcement, there were countless rumors of different top options almost every day being the new leader. At some points, things got so chaotic that it was pretty hard to follow, or exhausting to try and do so. Most pieces of information were available to the public, but not everything. 

Along with fellow A to Z Sports analyst Destin Adams, we put together the timeline for the Penn State coaching search. It began on October 12 when Franklin was fired by the Nittany Lions, and finally ended this past Friday. It was a period filled with chaos, countless missteps, and even more uncertainty. 

Here’s how Penn State got here, and eventually settled on Campbell as their next head coach. While we feel great about the timeline based on different sources from each of us, it’s possible that there were even more candidates discussed at certain points. Some information will never be privy to the public, but the information that is bad enough. 

Penn State head coaching search timeline 

Penn State had interest in a couple of current coordinators early on in their process but multiple people a part of the search were dead set on not hiring a first time head coach. That set the tone of the search, at least narrowed things down, and established a baseline criteria. 

There was a big early group of head coaching candidates that were in an initial wave of interest. Penn State cast a wide net, which is a solid early method to just see who may be legitimately interested. With a ton of elite names on that initial list, the Nittany Lions would have been happy with any of the first wave. Some of them included Urban Meyer, Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame), Matt Rhule (Nebraska), Eliah Drinkwitz (Missouri), Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Curt Cignetti (Indiana) and Clark Lea (Vanderbilt). 

After some initial talks with Meyer, that died quickly. Out of that group, Rhule, Drinkwitz, Elko, Cignetti, and Lea all received new contract extensions from their current schools. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one announced for Freeman in the future as well. 

Of those coaches, Elko had the most interest in the Nittany Lions. There were conversations between the two sides, but it eventually fell through. While there wasn’t more than an initial feeler put out to guys like Freeman for example, conversations between the two sides were much more extensive with Elko, but to no avail. 

Multiple members at the school felt like there should have been a more aggressive approach with trying to convince Cignetti to consider the job. But in the end they took his no as final and didn’t push as hard as some would have liked. Cignetti listened but didn’t give it much consideration. 

The not so wildcards

While the school had some interest in Lincoln Riley (USC), there were also some that felt like his end goals wouldn’t be at Penn State, but instead a jump to the NFL at some point. Ultimately, Riley and his team pulled out before the school had to make a decision. While it didn’t work out between Penn State, this is an indicator that Riley has his eyes open to what’s out there, which is an interesting note to consider for the future. 

While Penn State was doing their due diligence with candidates on the back end, there was also always interest in Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. If DeBoer opted to leave, that would have been the top target for the Nittany Lions more than likely. The difficulty with the DeBoer situation is that it would have taken some unique circumstances for him to leave after this season, which didn’t happen. If the Crimson Tide would have lost to Auburn, things could have gotten a lot more interesting. 

The most public Penn State-head coach situation was with Kalani Sitake (BYU). That was very close to happening, and many on the Penn State side thought it was happening. Those on the BYU side were also preparing for their next step in case Sitake did opt for Happy Valley. In the eleventh hour, Sitake decided to stay put. That also netted Sitake a new contract extension and a significant raise, expecting to make around $9 million per year. 

While Penn State was busy courting the likes of Riley and Sitake, they maintained communication with former James Madison head coach Bob Chesney, but it was clear there were candidates in a higher regard. As the team slow-played Chesney, he eventually decided to sign a deal to become the next head coach at UCLA. That decision wasn’t an overly popular one at the time, but seems to have worked out for the next for the Nittany Lions. 

A part of the later wave of candidates, Penn State also had some interest in Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key. They weren’t the only program that had interest in Key, but those conversations went nowhere, and Key also inked a new deal to remain with his Alma mater. Penn State also called about Willie Fritz (Houston), but that also didn’t go anywhere. There was a report that Fritz hadn’t had any contact with Penn State officials, which is true. That conversation was back channeled, with Fritz quickly made the decision not to pursue that interest.

Why not promote Terry Smith?

There was serious concern about what the national perception would be if this head coaching search ended with the school hiring interim coach Terry Smith, despite the loud support he had from current and former players. The program had struck out so much, so it would have been a black eye on their search. Smith would have also looked like a panic move, no matter how loud his support was. 

The team was able to take so many swings on higher profile names because they felt if all else failed they had former Giants head coach Brian Daboll as a fallback option, who was very interested in the opening. That was a route that the program ultimately didn’t need to go down, although it would have been interesting. 

Chaos finally ends

In 59 total days of the head coaching search, Penn State had some level of interest in at least 15 different head coaching options. Of those options, seven coaches received contract extensions based on the interest they were receiving from the coaching market. That doesn’t even include Chesney getting the UCLA job, and Freeman most likely also receiving an extension at some point. 

It was clear that this process was extremely disjointed from the beginning. Despite having an ample amount of time to get your ducks in a row, they still had misstep after misstep. It was clear that Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft and the rest of the Nittany Lion decision makers didn’t always align. They may have got it right in the end with Campbell, but there’s no questioning that this wasn’t the smoothest process in the world, from start to finish. 

Penn State Nittany Lions News

Why Matt Campbell is the anchor Penn State needs right now

Here’s why the former Iowa State coach is the steady, culture-building anchor the Nittany Lions need and what his arrival means for the program’s future.

Nick Wright