Penn State's Coaching Search Called a 'Disaster'

Penn State's coaching search reached Day 53 on Wednesday, which coincides with the start of college football's early signing period, and the program has no full-time head coach. Now that Lane Kiffin is off to LSU, Penn State wears the sport's spotlight, and it's not flattering.

"The Penn State coaching searsh is a disaster," analyst Josh Pate said on the latest edition of Josh Pate's College Football Show.

Penn State underwent a very public, and ultimately failed, courtship with BYU's Kalani Sitake, who signed a long-term extension with the Cougars on Tuesday. Sitake had emerged as Penn State's top candidate, reaching the point of a verbal agreement to become the Nittany Lions' head coach, as reported by Matt Fortuna of the Inside Zone substack.

However, BYU this week made it impossible for Sitake to leave his alma mater. "I am humbled and full of gratitude for the outpouring of love from BYU fans...," he said.

Having been spurned by Texas A&M's Mike Elko, who signed an extension, and getting little traction with other reported top targets in Alabama's Kalen DeBoer and Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman, Penn State is scrambling to fill a seat that has been open for nearly eight weeks.

Meanwhile, James Franklin has signed nine of his former Penn State commits to Virginia Tech's 2026 recruiting class, which now ranks 29th nationally, according to the 247Sports Composite. That's 115 spots higher than Penn State, which could sign just one player to its 2026 class.

Thus, Pate turned a critical eye toward Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft, whom he said has put the football program in an "inexcusable spot."

"You'd better be about 98 percent sure [of having a solid target] if you're the athletic director, or else you have screwed your program, and it's totally inexcusable," Pate said on his show. "... If you fire [Franklin] and you know you can go get Marcus Freeman or Mike Elko or Kalen DeBoer, fine. Tough love, tough business, go do it.

"But if you're firing him out this window, you say goodbye, and out that window you see nothing but fog, you might want to have him stick around until the fog clears up a little bit. But Pat Kraft didn't do that. And if you don't have certainty that you can upgrade from your current situation but you flush on your current situation anyway, you're probably not equipped to be the athletic director of a major program."

One year ago today, Franklin was holding a Signing Day ceremony at Penn State to welcome the nation's 15th-ranked class while preparing for the Big Ten championship game. As Pate noted, the flip has been stunning. "Virginia Tech could not have gotten a better Christmas present than Pat Kraft delivered for them," Pate said on his show.

He added, "The football program at Penn State matters by 10 miles more than anything else [Kraft] does, and it's in a state of disrepair right now."

Watch Pate's full takedown here.