Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft's meandering 50-day search for a head coach may have torpedoed Penn State's chances of contending in years to come. (Syndication: Hanover Evening Sun)
Penn State Athletic Director Pat Kraft’s search for a new head football coach to replace James Franklin took an unfortunate turn for the Nittany Lions Tuesday, as the reported top candidate for the job, Kalani Sitake, revealed his intention to remove his name from consideration and return to BYU.
So far, Penn State is over 50 days into the search for James Franklin’s replacement and has seen numerous candidates use the position to leverage larger pay and resources at coaches’ current programs, and is no closer to hiring a new head coach.
I will speak bluntly for a second, and call Pat Kraft’s search this season an unmitigated disaster for Penn State, which is doing an immense amount of damage to the short-term and long-term future of the Nittany Lions football program.
“An Unmitigated Disaster”: The 50-Day Search Hits Rock Bottom
How Penn State got here
Pat Kraft fired former head coach James Franklin on October 12 after the Nittany Lions dropped a third game in a row to the Northwestern Wildcats.
One day later, on October 13, Pat Kraft held a press conference to lay out his vision for the Penn State coaching search and what he was looking for in Penn State’s next head coach.
At the press conference, Kraft announced Penn State would conduct a “national search” for a coach who can “achieve excellence at the highest level.”
Kraft further told reporters that the next head coach must “fit Penn State…They need to represent the toughness, the blue-collar work ethic, and the class that defines this institution. Kraft continued that he is looking for someone who “honors tradition but isn’t afraid to evolve, someone who understands the weight of ‘we are’ and leads us forward with a vision of championships.”
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“Played For Fools”: Coaches Using Penn State for Leverage
Seven and a half weeks later, Pat Kraft is still striking out on his national search, and Penn State is suffering the consequences of Kraft’s firing of James Franklin without a plan for what came next.
To begin, Pat Kraft has been played by a number of coaches this cycle, turning Penn State’s apparent interest into raises and extensions at their current jobs. Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, Texas A&M’s Mike Elko, and now BYU’s Kalani Sitake have all used the Penn State opening to sign extensions with their respective programs.
In the case of Sitake, this went as far as turning back on a reported handshake agreement with Kraft to return to BYU next season.
Each of these extensions have both shortened Penn State’s list but also made Penn State’s hire seemingly more expensive.
Losing Targets to Rivals: Chesney (UCLA) and Fitzgerald (Michigan State)
In addition to the extensions, Pat Kraft’s slow play with Sitake knocked two more names off the board for Penn State, as James Madison’s Bob Chesney has reportedly accepted the head coaching position at UCLA and Pat Fitzgerald is headed to Michigan State.
While all of these names are off the board, Penn State has also watched every other major opening in college football sign a head coach this week, and salvage what is left of the 2026 recruiting class before signing day Wednesday.
With Penn State being the last major opening, and Penn State’s recruiting class thoroughly raided by former head coach Franklin at Virginia Tech, Penn State could be the first power conference program ever to not sign a single player in a recruiting class.
All of this has turned Penn State into a punch line for the national media and social media.
Ramifications: The Long-Term Damage to Penn State Football
Penn State fans took to X on Tuesday after Sitake’s announcement, calling for Pat Kraft’s firing for blowing this search.
“Penn State job may not be Ohio State or Oregon,” On3’s Josh Pate said. “But, it’s way better than it’s being perceived and treated right now.”
That’s on Pat Kraft. Penn State should be a top 15 job at minimum in college football, and Pat Kraft has whiffed on every candidate perceived as an option for Penn State.
After every other major program has already signed their head coach, it seems as though Pat Kraft still has no direction and no idea what he is doing.
Worse Than Sanctions: The Final Verdict on Kraft’s Solo Effort
Every day that Pat Kraft’s search continues, Penn State’s next head coach’s job gets harder.
Penn State is already punting on the 2026 recruiting class heading into Wednesday without a permanent head coach. Penn State will sign zero recruits for the first time in history on Wednesday when the early signing portal opens, much lower even than during the sanctions of the early 2010s. In addition, each day creeps closer to the transfer portal window, with James Franklin itching to tear apart the roster and bring whoever he can to Blacksburg.
Just pulling enough players out of the transfer portal to field a roster in 2026 could be a struggle for the next head coach, let alone fielding a team that can be competitive in the Big Ten.
Pat Kraft’s coaching search could realistically set the Penn State football program back for a few years and hit the program harder than NCAA sanctions ever did after the scandal.
In State College, 13 years ago, Michael Mauti let the world know, “This program was not built by one man and this program sure as hell is not going to get torn down by one man.”
That was true then, and it is still now, but Pat Kraft is sure doing his best to tear it down by himself this season.
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- 50 Days of Failure: How Pat Kraft’s Whiffs Could Set Penn State Football Back a Decade - December 3, 2025
- Penn State Coaching Search Chaos: Two Potential Candidates Hired By Big Ten Rivals - December 1, 2025
- Penn State Bowl Game: The Opt-Out Question and 3 Matchups That Could Decide Terry Smith’s Future - December 1, 2025
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