Penn State May Reportedly Go After Marcus Freeman To Begin Its Coaching Search

I'm fascinated by this upcoming Penn State coaching search. PSU athletic director Pat Kraft fired James Franklin a year after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinal and has sent a very clear message that the Nittany Lions do not intend to ever win fewer than 10 regular season games, even as the third- or fourth-best program in the Big Ten. And I understand the relationship had soured and Franklin had now reneged on his implicit promise to win all the meaningless games, even if he'd never win the important ones.

But I would be fearful if I was a Penn State fan that finding someone to sign up for those expectations may be more difficult than expected.

The name that has been floated the most so far is Nebraska's Matt Rhule, who walked on at Penn State under Joe Paterno and whom Kraft worked with at Temple. But it seems Kraft may take some big swings before getting to Rhule, reportedly beginning with Marcus Freeman.

To be totally honest, I have no idea why Freeman would leave Notre Dame for Penn State. He's at a program that has arguably the most recognizable brand in the country, is about to make the CFP for a second consecutive year — and will do so every season it's remotely feasible for the committee to put it there — and already has a good thing going at a better spot. He's also shown a propensity to drop a game to Northern Illinois or Marshall every so often, and if he did that in his first season in State College, the natives would be beyond restless.

I applaud Kraft for going after elite coaches, as any AD should, but this one just doesn't make any sense to me. I can't imagine Curt Cignetti is itching to leave Indiana to start over at a place with higher expectations, either.

The two names of sitting Power Four head coaches I think PSU should have written down somewhere are Brian Kelly and Dabo Swinney. Kelly has already shown that he'll make a lateral move to re-start his clock somewhere and Swinney seems to be at a point where he might entertain going somewhere else to show Clemson fans how great they had it. And if you get past those guys, that's when you call Eli Drinkwitz and Matt Rhule.

There are still several more massive jobs that are going to come open this year and we're going to see one of the craziest coaching carousels we've had in many years. Buckle up.