Penn State Football Head Coaching Search: News & Notes (11.18.25)

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We have lots to catch up on from the last time we took a lay of the land regarding Penn State’s coaching search. While we’re hitting the homestretch in some sense — Penn State will *likely* hire a head coach during the first week-ish of December — things are still up in the air publicly on which way the Nittany Lions would like to go. Listen to five different media members and they will give you five different names on who they think Penn State will hire. That is likely by design for Pat Kraft.

Mike Elko, We Hardly Knew Ya

One of the pie in the sky targets of the Penn State coaching search was Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko, who is now officially off the board after signing an extension with the Aggies following their come from behind victory against South Carolina on Saturday.

Elko was mentioned very early on by Bruce Feldman, and more recently by Jon Sauber of the Centre Daily Times, so I do not doubt that he was a target of Pat Kraft and Penn State. But like I said a few weeks back when the Elko smoke first popped up: he just wasn’t all that realistic. If A&M lost to Notre Dame, LSU, South Carolina, leaving them with 3 losses and outside of the CFP? Okay, *maybe* there’s a chance he wants to head back north. But even then, it was always very doubtful. Coaches, especially early in their tenures, generally don’t leave one premier job for another.

Since we’re on the point and Penn State fans on the interwebs have now switched their focus to Kalen DeBoer after Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma:

I will once again say: extremely unlikely he leaves Alabama. The Crimson Tide are more likely to win the SEC than they are to lose to Auburn. So sure, root for Auburn to knock off Alabama with the hopes that DeBoer will look for an *exit strategy, but realize the small, small chance it all actually comes to fruition.

_{*Discussion for another day, but I do find it entertaining that Penn State fans would be jazzed up about a coach that couldn’t get to the 12-team playoff at Alabama in back-to-back seasons with much of the roster built by Nick Saban. Just saying.}

Brian Daboll, The “Wild Card”

The New York Giants fired Brian Daboll last Monday after blowing a fourth quarter lead to the Chicago Bears where Jaxson Dart got concussed and leaving them with a 2-8 record. That left Daboll — after leading the Giants to the playoffs in his first season as head coach and winning NFL Coach of the Year — with a 20-40-1 career record and now a pink slip.

Daboll has connections to Penn State, being that his son was a student assistant with the football program and his daughter is currently student in Happy Valley. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that Daboll’s name got floated for the job by Bruce Feldman, who called Daboll a “wildcard in the mix.”

If my Twitter mentions mean anything, Daboll is a controversial candidate. And to be fair, his negatives are a bit more loud than some others. He, apparently, has some Bill O’Brien to him AKA he lets his emotions get the best of him. ESPN came out with the traditional article that pops up in the days following a firing of a head coach titled “The fall of the Daboll era” where Daboll’s outbursts where a major subject.

That same fire and emotion would become problematic as things went south. There was the time when he flipped a tablet at quarterback Daniel Jones. There was the sideline berating of defensive coordinator Wink Martindale that extended in and out of the locker room at halftime of a 2023 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. The constant explosions even led to Schoen listening in on the headsets during games to make sure Daboll was communicating effectively with his coaches. Heck, Daboll was even caught on camera giving special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey a death stare during a preseason game early in his tenure.

This season alone, there were the weekly sideline tirades, a hate-challenge following a tush push non-fumble earlier this month and illegally running into the blue medical tent while Dart was being examined for a concussion against the Philadelphia Eagles. That embarrassment cost Daboll $100,000 and the team $250,000.

Even beyond his NFL head coaching failures, there is the fact that Daboll is mostly a college football outsider. Yes, he was a GA for Nick Saban at Michigan State in the 90s and then was Saban’s offensive coordinator for one (national championship) season at Alabama in 2017, but he otherwise has only been an NFL coach. That of course, raises the question of how Daboll would do leading a college program and all that entails — recruiting, NIL, boosters, fundraising, academics, etc. College football is a different beast than the NFL, and it takes a certain kind of whacko to be good at it because of all the different hats you wear. While I don’t think Daboll’s mostly-NFL career precludes him from potentially being a good college head coach, there are questions he’d need very good, very detailed answers to in discussions/interview with Pat Kraft.

Personally, I do really like the idea of Daboll. Strong offensive mind who worked under Saban. Can tout that he developed Josh Allen from a rookie to an All-Pro QB. I think culturally he’d be a fit, being a literal Penn State Dad and being from upstate New York originally. He has detractions for sure that raise concerns about his ability as a college coach, but I *get* the idea of him should he nail the interview process.

Bob Chesney, Pennsylvania Boy With A Penn State Heart 2.0?

A name that I haven’t brought up is James Madison coach Bob Chesney, mostly because I didn’t think (and still don’t particularly think) Penn State will go into the Group of 5 for its head coach. But, man, Chesney has the Dukes rolling this season. James Madison is 9-1 with its lone loss a 28-14 defeat on the road at Louisville (a game that was tied 14-14 going into the 4th quarter). But in conference, JMU is beating THE HELL out of its Sun Belt foes. The Dukes are averaging 40.1 PPG against Sun Belt opponents, while only giving up 15.9 PPG. Truly, Chesney has the Dukes dominating their peers, especially as of late with JMU putting up 50+ points in three of their last four games.

Chesney has a different background than most of the other candidates, as he’s literally never worked at a Power 4 program in any capacity and only has two years experience (the last two at JMU) at the FBS level. He worked his way up the Division III ranks, becoming the head coach at DIII Salve Regina as a 33-year-old in 2010. Chesney’s parlayed his success at each stop, going from Salve Regina to DII Assumption (2013-2017), FCS Holy Cross (2018-2023), and now the FBS at the G5 level with James Madison.

The guy wins though, man. He has a record of 129-51 across all levels. Similar to what another JMU football coach once said, Chesney wins…Google him.

To be clear, it’s a big step up from James Madison to Penn State. But Chesney is a PA native who’s relatively young (47 years old) and is doing just about everything you could want from him at JMU. Maybe he could bring a jolt of energy that this program could use?

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