On Sunday, the coaching carousel dominos all fell into place like we've hardly seen before in college football. Lane Kiffin decided on LSU which then paired Florida and Jon Sumrall, Arkansas and Ryan Silverfield, Auburn and Alex Golesh, Ole Miss and Pete Golding, and even Michigan State and Pat Fitzgerald.
As nearly every premier job was filled, it's odd that Penn State which was the first big job to open still hasn't been filled. Curt Cignetti and Matt Rhule drew early buzz, but after both signed extensions, taking them out of the race for the job. One of the candidates that was picking up buzz as of late was James Madison's Bob Chesney, but he's now finalizing a deal to become the next UCLA head coach.
UCLA is expecting in the near future to finalize the hire of JMU coach Bob Chesney, sources tell @YahooSports. Chesney is expected to coach in the Sun Belt championship this Friday and will coach the playoffs if the Dukes advance.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 1, 2025
Penn State may be searching in the coordinator pool
The Penn State Nittany Lions continue to search while all of the top current head coaches come off the board. At this point in the coaching carousel, all signs point toward Penn State going against the trend in this cycle and hiring one of the hot names in the offensive and defensive coordinator pool.
The vast majority of hires this year have been active head coaches taking a bigger head coaching gig which means the coordinator pool is still rich with talent. When you look at the Top 10 teams in the Country, Ryan Day was an offensive coordinator before he was hired while Kirby Smart, Dan Lanning, Brent Venables, and Marcus Freeman were all defensive coordinators before they were hired.
The good news for Penn State is that there are plenty of young up-and-coming coordinators they can look at to take the job. Offensive Coordinators Brian Hartline, Buster Faulkner, Will Stein, and Tosh Lupoi would all make great hires for a program that hasn't been able to find success with it's passing attack. Penn State could also hire a defensive minded head coach and pick one of Glenn Schumann or Blake Baker.
Penn State still has plenty of directions it could turn, but the Nittany Lions would be best suited filling the role sooner rather than later.