Surprise Penn State Coaching Candidate Emerges After Top ...

By Anne EricksonShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

Many college football teams are rounding out their 2026 coaching staffs this week, but the Penn State Nittany Lions are still one of the only major college football programs looking for a new leader.

Ole Miss, LSU, Kentucky, Michigan State, Florida, Auburn and various other football programs have signed their new head coaches, but Penn State is continuing to search for a coach after suffering a major setback on Tuesday.

It's not as if Penn State hasn't had time to search. It fired longtime coach James Franklin in the middle of the 2025 season, following a 3-3 start. Franklin has already taken a new job with the Virginia Tech Hokies.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake was considered a favorite and the top pick for Penn State, but according to a report from ESPN's Pete Thamel, he's staying at BYU after many believed he'd be the next Nittany Lions HC. Oregon's Will Stein was also believed to be at the top of the search, but he's taken a position as the head coach of Kentucky.

That leaves Penn State still coach-less and looking for someone to quickly fill their opening.

So, a coach who was talked about weeks ago in Penn State's coaching search but has since fallen off the radar is once again resurfacing as a pick.

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Former head coach James Franklin of the Penn State Nittany Lions leads his team onto the field prior to the Capital One Orange Bowl against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

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Brian Daboll, the former head coach of the New York Giants, is still a free agent. The Giants fired Daboll on Nov. 10 after a 2-8 start to the season, but the team hasn't won a game since, so it's difficult to pin the blame solely on Daboll.

And while a bit of desperation may be creeping in for PSU, Daboll may start to look like an attractive option for the school.

"Brian Daboll, a branch off the Bill Belichick tree, earned a shot as the head coach of the New York Giants for his role in developing Josh Allen into an MVP candidate," Josh Yourish of Victory Bell Rings noted. "Then, Daboll led Daniel Jones to the playoffs in Year 1, which doomed him for the rest of his tenure because the Giants overpaid to keep Jones.

"Still, it’s hard to have much sympathy for a head coach who started this season 2-8 while twice blowing 10-plus point fourth quarter leads (emphasis on the plus from an 18-point blown fourth quarter lead against the Broncos)."

Another plus for Daboll is that he has family ties to Penn State, however, Yourish notes that "it'd be a questionable move to hire a coach who has spent most of his career in the NFL."

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