The Penn State Nittany Lions made some headlines today when it was revealed that they fired their head coach James Franklin on Sunday. It’s not a shocking move in that Penn State has gone completely off
a cliff in a season with such incredibly high expectations, but I did not expect it to happen immediately like this. Northwestern’s win in Happy Valley 22-21 yesterday apparently sealed the deal for Franklin, who is set to land an enormous buyout of around $50 million. There’s absolutely no life like fired coach life.
So yes, despite this being a Penn State move, there is a Miami Hurricanes angle, and it could involve one of their former head coaches. Naturally, the list of replacements is starting to roll out on the ol interwebs, and our dear old friend Manny Diaz is, at least to my surprise, on many lists.
First, the connection is obvious and logical. Diaz was Penn State’s defensive coordinator from 2022-23 after Miami fired him as their head coach in December 2021. Penn State’s defenses with Diaz at the helm were very good, and Diaz made it to the semifinal round of the Broyles Award in 2022 that’s give to the nation’s top assistant coach. He knows the PSU program well.
But Diaz has got to be low on any list, perhaps as a backup option. One has to think that Penn State is going to take a massive run at Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, who has done things that have boggled the mind up in Bloomington over the last 13 calendar months. Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, and perhaps even USF’s Alex Golesh could be other current head coaches to also get realistic consideration for the job. I would be surprised if Penn State went the coordinator route, but who knows.
Diaz has done a nice job at a low-pressure gig at Duke, and that deserves credit, but coaching at a high-pressure, big-name program is a very different animal, and Diaz didn’t handle it well the first time around. The pressure would be even higher at State College.
To be clear, I like Diaz. I think he seems like a good person, and I wish him success as long as Miami isn’t involved. But I cannot believe that Penn State would roll the dice there. I guess we’ll see in the coming weeks if that’s the case.
