College football insider dishes on the out-of-nowhere rumors that Penn State is interested in hiring Tennessee’s Josh Heupel
Not even Tennessee Vols head coach Josh Heupel is immune from wild coaching search rumors right now.
Over the weekend, rumors started circulating on social media and college football message boards that the Penn State Nittany Lions are interested in hiring Josh Heupel away from the Tennessee Vols.
Heupel’s name was listed as one of the favorites to land the job on Kalshi, a regulated prediction market that allows users to trade “event contracts” on the outcome of real-world events.
There have been no legitimate reports, however, connecting Heupel to Penn State.
The Nittany Lions are still searching for a head coach after firing James Franklin in October. Franklin has since been hired as the head coach at Virginia Tech.
College football insider comments on the rumors that Penn State is interested in hiring Josh Heupel away from Tennessee
On3’s Chris Low noted during this week’s The RTI Low-Down (via Rocky Top Insider) that he hasn’t heard Heupel’s name connected to the Penn State job from anyone that he “trusts.”
“I have not heard Josh’s name at Penn State among anybody that I believe or trust,” said Low. “I think it’s a popular name to throw out there. Penn State is probably in a position now where they’ve got to have somebody that’s had some success [and] who is established.”
“I think it’s one of those things where Tennessee is a good enough job,” continued Low. “And he has done enough and done a lot of the heavy lifting….does he right now want to go — and maybe there’s something to be said for restarting your clock — but does he want to go and start that heavy lifting again at a place where you win nine games or you win 10 games [and] it’s not going to be enough?
“I think he’s probably too invested in the challenge of getting Tennessee to where he wants to get it to go take on another [job]. I do think that there are going to be names like his that are out there for a job like Penn State. I was really surprised we didn’t hear his name in some of the other ones. But I do not believe that to be the case at this point that he’s a real candidate at Penn State.”
It’s easy to be dismissive of rumors, but you never know when a rumor may turn into something more (Tony Vitello leaving Tennessee for the San Francisco Giants, for example).
For now, though, it doesn’t sound like Heupel is a candidate for any job. And his name being mentioned, to this point, is nothing more than folks throwing stuff out there on social media.
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