Penn State football loses coaching target, BYU's Kalani Sitake: report
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Penn State football appears to have missed out on its top head coaching candidate in its longer-than-expected search.
Longtime BYU head coach Kalani Sitake has agreed to remain in Provo, Utah, according to national reports.
Sitake “has begun to inform people that he intends to stay at the school. BYU is in the process of putting together a lucrative contract to keep him. He’s been one of main targets at Penn State, which he informed of his decision today,” ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel posted on X.
This comes after news emerged on Monday that Penn State officials, including athletic director Pat Kraft, had zeroed in on Sitake as their lead target — the first such public proclamation of any sort in this 50-day-plus search since James Franklin was fired in mid-October.
Sitake, 50, had garnered Penn State’s prime attention while leading BYU to double-digit victories in four of the past six years, including back-to-back 11-win seasons. His Cougars, ranked 11th, will play in this weekend’s Big 12 Championship Game with a College Football Playoff bid on the line.
He did that all in relative national obscurity, first leading wayward BYU as an independent and then helping it transition into the Big 12. His teams have never played in a top-rate postseason game, the best perhaps last year’s Alamo Bowl victory over Colorado.
Sitake’s rejection means Penn State officials must continue to lock up a new program leader as many of college football’s top opening have already been filled. Any hire now will certainly come after PSU’s decimated 2026 recruiting class begins finalizing their commitments on Wednesday’s early national signing day and quite possible after the Lions learn of their expected bowl destination this weekend.
Where does Penn State’s search go now?
It already has missed on potential candidates who signed new deals with their current teams, from Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Texas A&M’s Mike Elko to Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and Nebraska’s Matt Rhule.
They could circle back on potential candidates like Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm, Pennsylvania native and James Madison head coach Bob Chesney (reportedly finalizing a deal to lead UCLA) or a top coordinator, like Ohio State’s Brian Hartline.
In the meantime, Franklin is busy starting his new job leading Virginia Tech.
It’s unclear, yet, how the immediate transition of running the Lions will transpire with the team beginning preparations for an expected bowl game between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Whoever will become Penn State’s new head coach will be only the fifth since Rip Engle arrived in State College in 1950. He’ll replace Franklin, who earned a 100-45 record in 12 seasons, and was known for program-building, recruiting and consistently beating opponents he was favored to beat.
Franklin — who was hired to lead Virginia Tech two weeks ago — is tied with Engle for the second-most head coaching victories at Penn State, behind Joe Paterno’s major college football record 409.
Franklin was criticized most harshly for his Penn State teams rarely ever winning marquee match-ups. They were just 15-29 against ranked opponents — and a desultory 4-21 against Top 10 teams.
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football loses coach search target, BYU’s Kalani Sitake
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