Penn State made a major move on Sunday when the school parted ways with head football coach James Franklin.
It came on the heels of Saturday’s loss to Northwestern, after Penn State had lost to UCLA the week before. Saturday’s loss against Northwestern dropped the program to 3-3 overall. Associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Penn State is immediately the top job available in college football, and Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt already has some top candidates in mind.
“The big swing is Curt Cignetti. Curt Cignetti from Indiana,” Klatt said on “The Joel Klatt Show.” “This guy is a proven commodity, and after this last weekend, with that win over Oregon, I don’t think there’s a hotter name in college football right now than Curt Cignetti.”
“How about the fit guy? Maybe even kind of a bring him home type of a deal. I’ve got two names there. A guy who just had a lot of success as the defensive coordinator at Penn State and now is doing a really good job at Duke, it’s Manny Diaz. I think that Manny Diaz is going to get a call in this situation. Another one that has deep Penn State ties and is a very good coach, and on a trajectory right now to maybe overachieve at a place that’s been hard to win for 20 years, and that’s Matt Rhule at Nebraska. Obviously. there’s a relationship there. Matt obviously knows and is in a lot of ways Penn State, so I think that’s going to be a call.”
“And then the guy that’s maybe under the radar, that’s not a head coach right now, that has seen it. Like a Dan Lanning, like a Kirby Smart. He’s been around it. He knows what it takes. He just hasn’t been a head coach yet, is Brian Hartline at Ohio State.”
There will be some strong candidates for this job, but it’s up to the school to get this hire right.
Penn State loses 5-star recruit after James Franklin firing
Five-star running back Kemon Spell decommitted from Penn State following the firing of James Franklin. He’s the top-rated running back in the 2027 recruiting class.
In addition to being the top running back in the 2027 class, Spell is the top recruit in his home state (Pennsylvania) and the eighth-best recruit in the nation, per 247Sports composite rankings.
Penn State faces another tough test this weekend
The Nittany Lions come into this weekend on a three-game losing streak and they will look to snap it against a good Iowa Hawkeyes team. They’ll play the Hawkeyes on the road at Kinnick Stadium, which is a very tough place to play.
The Hawkeyes come into this game with a 4-2 record after shutting out the Wisconsin Badgers 37-0 last Saturday.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on Peacock.
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