Now that Matt Rhule has signed a contract extension to remain with Nebraska and the most obvious candidate for Penn State’s head coach vacancy is off the board, the other options for Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft could be trickier to spot.
Rhule and Kraft are close friends from their days working together at Temple. Rhule is also a Penn Stater, having walked on to Joe Paterno’s team after going to high school in State College.
Advertisement
With such strong ties to both the school and the AD, Rhule was naturally the first name to come up when James Franklin was fired on Oct. 12.
While there is no guarantee Kraft seeks out other candidates he has worked with before, some within the industry have flagged two possibilities: Duke head coach Manny Diaz and Syracuse head coach Fran Brown, though neither is having the type of season that screams for a big promotion.
Kraft has hired Diaz as a head coach before, though he never coached a game at Temple: Diaz left to become Miami’s coach shortly after being named Geoff Collins’ replacement.
There are no lingering hard feelings between the two, and later
Continue Reading on New York Times
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.