How Long Should Penn State Wait to Hire a Football Coach?

For those who like round numbers, exactly 100 days separate the morning Penn State fired James Franklin on Oct. 12 from the first sunrise of the college football offseason — just over three months, or about 27 percent of a year. So far, Penn State has been without Franklin for a little over a month, meaning it’s roughly a third of the way to that milestone.

The working assumption has always been that Penn State will have a head coach in place by the time a national champion is crowned. The reasoning is simple: Three months is forever in college football, and the urgency of the recruiting calendar requires programs to fill empty positions with similar urgency.

But if Penn State has to wait for a coach to finish the postseason, should it? The answer is probably yes.

In many respects, if Penn State wanted to avoid a recruiting rescue mission for its 2026 team, it probably shouldn’t have fired Franklin when it did in the first place. The early signing period begins Dec. 2, and Penn State’s 2026 recruiting class already is looking elsewhere.

Midseason coaching changes always trigger recruiting turnover, transfer portal departures and all manner of previously avoidable issues. While NIL has created a stopgap for coaches to bring in new players, the damage was largely already done the moment Franklin was dismissed.

Of course, having a coach in place ahead of the January 2-16 transfer portal window would be preferable. But the bigger question is this: Is it better to hire the coach you want and disregard conventional timelines, or to hire a coach who lets you win some recruiting battles and find transfer portal additions but who may or may not positively impact your program?

Historically, the answer has been a mix of both. The expanded playoffs have changed the calculus over the years, but Penn State is getting closer and closer to a tipping point of this dragging into the new year. Consider the following dates of hirings in the Big Ten:

Michigan State: Jonathan Smith, November 25th
Nebraska: Matt Rhule, November 26th
USC: Lincoln Riley, November 28th
Indiana: Curt Cignetti, November 30th
Purdue: Barry Odom, December 8th
Oregon: Dan Lanning, December 11th
Washington: Jedd Fisch, January 14th
UCLA: Deshaun Foster, February 12th
Penn State: James Franklin, January 11th
Penn State: Bill O’Brien, January 6th

Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko claps to players before a game vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks. — Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko prior to the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The December, or even early January, hiring timeline doesn’t pair well with two of Penn State’s reported top targets: Texas A&M’s Mike Elko and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer. Both have playoff contenders that could be playing in mid-January.

So what is Penn State’s most likely move? Given the lack of real news, and the fact that most of the assumed legitimate targets are still neck deep into their seasons, it seems pretty likely Penn State’s coaching search is going to drag into December.

There has been scant news regarding who Penn State might actually hire. It seems unlikely Penn State will steal away a quality head coach from a quality program and that this development will unfold in secrecy.

In the end, there’s something to be said about all the recruiting windows that exist on the college football calendar and the need to maintain positive momentum. There’s also something to be said for getting the hire right. At the end of the day, Penn State’s quest won’t come down to how quickly the hire was made but who was actually hired.

And if that means waiting a bit longer, and maybe losing out on a few recruits in the process, that’s not the worst trade.

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