Penn State’s Pat Kraft continues coaching search as clock ticks

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Pat Kraft mostly has remained detached since he fired James Franklin as Penn State football coach more than six weeks ago.

Kraft’s public silence has led to rampant speculation about who he will choose as the next coach and when he will make that decision, the most important one of his career.

According to various reports, he’s pursued top-flight college head coaches such as Mike Elko of Texas A&M, Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame and Kalen DeBoer of Alabama without any luck, at least so far.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer has a 122-18 overall record, including 18-6 in two seasons with the Crimson Tide. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

The next tier of possible candidates include Jeff Brohm of Louisville, Eli Drinkwitz of Missouri, Brent Key of Georgia Tech, Clark Lea of Vanderbilt, Matt Campbell of Iowa State and Bob Chesney of James Madison, the most intriguing one in that group.

Then there’s Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith, who has not been shy in promoting himself to be the permanent coach at his alma mater. It would seem odd, though, for Kraft to dismiss Franklin and then hire his associate head coach.

Penn State’s 2026 recruiting class is in shambles with Franklin gone and his replacement nowhere in sight. So hiring the next coach before National Signing Day on Dec. 3 is not paramount. Finding the right guy is.

Kraft, though, can’t wait longer than immediately after the first-round games in the College Football Playoff Dec. 19-20, not with the transfer portal opening Jan. 2.

Penn State will need to hit the portal hard to replace more than 25 seniors and who knows how many younger players who will go elsewhere.

So then, who will the next Penn State coach be?

Elko reportedly has told Kraft that he’s staying with Texas A&M, which is 11-0 going into Friday night’s rivalry game at Texas.

It doesn’t seem likely that Freeman would leave Notre Dame for Penn State when the Irish supporters have deeper pockets. Maybe he would leave for Ohio State, his alma mater, but that job isn’t open.

Kraft continues to pursue DeBoer, but Alabama (9-2) can clinch a CFP berth with a win over archrival Auburn Saturday night. A Tigers victory would knock the Crimson Tide out of CFP contention after going 9-4 last season, DeBoer’s first in Tuscaloosa.

DeBoer has a 122-18 record, including three previous stops, and led Washington to the CFP title game two years ago. But if he fails to take the Tide to the 12-team CFP for the second straight year, his time might be up there.

Brohm, Drinkwitz, Key, Lea and Campbell might be willing to jump to another school, but it appears that Penn State isn’t one of them.

Then there’s the 48-year-old Chesney, a Pennsylvania native (Kulpmont) and a Dickinson College grad who has enjoyed success at four stops: Division III Salve Regina, Division II Assumption, Holy Cross in the Football Championship Subdivision and now James Madison in Football Bowl Subdivision.

He has a sparkling 130-51 record, which includes 19-5 at JMU and 44-21 and five straight Patriot League titles at Holy Cross. He doesn’t have instant name recognition with many Penn State fans, but he could be the guy with the most upside of all.

“This has always been a thing in my past everywhere I’ve been,” Chesney said two weeks ago on the Sun Belt Conference coaches call. “The first year, you’re leaving. The second year, you’re leaving. …It goes on and on and on.”

Two names that haven’t been mentioned much, if at all, as potential candidates are former Florida coach Dan Mullen, who’s 9-2 in his first season at UNLV, and former Penn State assistant Charles Huff, who’s 7-4 in his first season at Southern Miss.

The 53-year-old Mullen went 34-15 at Florida from 2018-21 before the Gators fired him with one game left in his fourth season. He’s an Ursinus College graduate who was a leading candidate when Penn State hired Franklin in 2014. He has coached such quarterbacks as Alex Smith, Tim Tebow and Dak Prescott.

The 42-year-old Huff is a Maryland native who’s considered a dynamic recruiter and who could battle Franklin and his Virginia Tech staff for high school players in the Mid-Atlantic region. He also coached for Nick Saban at Alabama before posting a 32-20 record in four seasons as Marshall head coach.

This is an extremely critical decision for Pat Kraft in the middle of a $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation project. His future at Penn State depends on it.

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