Penn State Says It's #Unrivaled. The Coaching Search Might Suggest Otherwise

Penn State built its brand on an inherent exceptionalism, but college athletics is changing.

A view inside of Beaver Stadium prior to the College Football Playoff game between the SMU Mustangs and Penn State Nittany Lions. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

If Penn State’s coaching search has revealed anything as it enters into December, it’s that the belief in Penn State exceptionalism — a long-standing sense that the program is special in ways others simply aren’t — is colliding with the realities of modern college football.

That exceptionalism has been around for about as long as the program itself. The Joe Paterno era, which became bedrock of the program’s entire ethos, is predicated on the idea that a football team can win while doing things “the right way.” And if you wanted to do both of these things at the highest level, Penn State is the place to make it happen.

The 1987 Fiesta Bowl served as a stark showcase of that: Penn State stepping off the plane in suits and ties, Miami in Army fatigues. Good versus Evil — and with a national title to show for it, a belief that moral superiority and football superiority could be intertwined.

In a post Sandusky-scandal world, things have evolved and become more complicated. The defensiveness around the program’s past and the uncertainty of its future have created an odd mix: a brand that wants to modernize while still operating with an underlying assumption of inherent specialness.

If there has been a revelation during Penn State’s coaching search, it’s that exceptionalism — that a huge stadium, passionate fans, a lucrative athletic department, THON, a solid education and a massive alumni base — is not as desirable as once believed.

RELATED: Penn State looks to recalibrate a "mismanaged" coaching search

What will Penn State learn from its coaching search?

Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft gives head football coach James Franklin a hug following a win over the Indiana Hoosiers in 2023. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In many respects, that’s one of the lessons being learned in real time — that coaches won’t just up and leave a job for Penn State. That the Nittany Lions are, in the current climate, the fourth-most desirable program in the Big Ten behind Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon.

In fairness to Athletic Director Pat Kraft, there’s little legitimate information about who has shown genuine interest. Nor is there much information about why many haven’t been pursued to the point of hiring. 

Was Bob Chesney too young? Was Brian Hartline not interested? Did others not approach NIL the right way? Did Matt Rhule lose his way out of an offer? The most public near-hire, Kalani Sitake, had no ties to the region or motivation to take the job other than, “Here is a pile of money,” a pile that BYU matched.

It’s also fair to say Penn State’s opening came before an unexpectedly busy swath of changes. As much as coaches like Lane Kiffin might come and go without a glance this side of the Mason-Dixon, insular southern football culture isn’t an indictment of anything related to Penn State. Kiffin was never headed up this way.

What Penn State takes from all of this will be hard to gauge but makes for an interesting conversation.

RELATED: Penn State's coaching search called a "disaster"

Penn State should scrutinize itself

Penn State Nittany Lions fans are seen during the first half of a White Out game against the Oregon Ducks at Beaver Stadium. | James Lang-Imagn Images

I often recall a time when I asked someone about Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson’s contract extension, a piece of news that Penn State never released to the public. Not the details, just the simple fact that Sanderson — the most universally successful and liked coach on campus — was staying.

I asked in essence, who is the person who decides not to release these things. Penn State has been secretive about contracts under multiple presidents, athletic directors and communications staffs. Who decided not to make a good thing public? And why is that the default choice?

The answer, from someone who would know and someone who would tell me: I don’t know.

It speaks to the traditional, “the way it has always been,” of Penn State. I may suffer from having been to a ton of games for work, but the game-day atmosphere, while good, is predictable and stale. Things are done the way they’ve always been done, turning so-called traditions into an excuse to lack creativity.

A rare and truly organic Mo Bamba moment crammed into every big sequence. Penn State’s $10,000 tunnel club is a good idea but not all that impressive in person. The Blue Band is great but has to compete with Drake. The Beaver Stadium renovations are needed, but the price tag is as much a sign of rising costs as it is of rising quality.

None of these things is the reason Penn State has yet to hire a football coach. But in a sense, it speaks to the belief that Penn State would have a job opening and everyone would flock to State College to fight over it.

In reality, that hasn’t happened, either by virtue of Kraft — who has at no point clarified if he is making this hire independently or with the assistance of a committee, something his predecessors did — balking at sensible hires in exchange for chasing an uncatchable fish, or because Penn State isn’t quite all the things it thinks it is.

The answer is probably both. While Penn State remains special in many ways, recent months have shown that it isn’t quite what everyone believes it to be.

All of this might be for naught if Kraft makes an 11th-hour hire that turns the tide. But so far it simply looks like a firing with no plan other than a belief Penn State is something that maybe it isn’t.

Penn State has spent a lot of time scrutinizing candidates but has perhaps neglected the more important task of scrutinizing itself.

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