Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541276
DECEMBER 2025/VOL. 41, NO. 4 MANAGING EDITOR Matt Herb CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stu Coman Cathy Jones Chris Riffer WEBSITE PUBLISHER Sean Fitz WEBSITE EDITOR Nate Bauer STAFF WRITER Greg Pickel RECRUITING REPORTER Ryan Snyder FOOTBALL ANALYST Thomas Frank Carr CONTRIBUTING WRITER Jim Carlson PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Manuel, Mark Selders, Frank Hyatt COVER PHOTO Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics DESIGN Jeanette Blankenship Chris Miller, Shelby Cragg F F F PUBLISHER Mark Panus BUSINESS ANALYST Sarah Boone CIRCULATION COORDINATOR Beverly Taylor ADVERTISING SALES Maria Taustine (502) 552-4390 CUSTOMER SERVICE Lauren Gordon, Shelby Cragg, Cathy Jones (800) 421-7751 BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED (USPS 742-550) is published monthly, except June, by Coman Publishing Co., a division of On3 Media, Inc., located at 905 W. Main St., Suite 24F, Durham, NC 27701. A one-year (11 issues) subscription is $68.00. First-class, digital and foreign rates available on request. Periodicals postage paid at Durham, NC 27701 and additional mailing offices. Printed by The Papers, Milford, Ind. POSTMASTER: Please send address correc- tions/changes to BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. For advertising or subscription information call 1-919-688-0218 or write BLUE WHITE ILLUSTRATED, PO Box 2331, Durham NC 27702-2331. Site Lines C O M M E N T S F R O M T H E L I O N S D E N A T B L U E W H I T E I L L U S T R A T E D . C O M W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M ON THE CANDIDATES TO REPLACE JAMES FRANKLIN AS PENN STATE'S HEAD COACH … I'm at the point where you offer Brian Hartline the job. Huge boom-or-bust hire, there would be no middle ground. — Eagleye This is the problem that the people who want Hartline don't seem to get. The guys who go to Ohio State go to play for Ohio State, not Hartline. Is he a great recruiter? I don't know. But I do know they got top players before him and will after him. He's not convincing a Jeremiah Smith-type player to come to Penn State over OSU. How long has he been a coordinator? How long has he called plays? Just because he's at Ohio State doesn't mean that he knows exactly how NIL works or how to run a program. He may be good. He may not be. But I just don't understand the "home run" hire people think just because he's a coordinator at OSU. — Gmac14 Penn State isn't a top-5 job in the country, but it's certainly somewhere in the top 7-15, which means there are a ton of re- ally good coaches that would want Penn State (and Pat Kraft just fired one). If you think of it as lines of intersection between names Penn State wants and names that would take the Penn State job, you start looking at the names where the cross points meet. Mike Elko is probably at the top of that list and would be the best-case scenario. But after that is when you start getting into the Eli Drinkwitz, Clark Lea, Jeff Brohm, Manny Diaz, Matt Campbell-type names. … Those guys certainly aren't [bad] coaches, but they all have red flags, like the guy who just got fired. — berg3438 I'm sure Kraft & Co. know better than me, but I just don't see the reason for optimism behind Drinkwitz. One of Franklin's biggest failures is big-game coaching, and Drink has an atrocious record during big games. — JMill987 When Franklin was fired, I never thought we'd be in a universe where a pathway to hire either Elko or Kalen DeBoer exists. And if our floor is Manny Diaz/Matt Campbell/Matt Rhule, that's still a position many programs would like to be in. We might not be in playoff contention every season with those guys, but 2 or 3 out of 4 would certainly be on the table. — ColorBlind Pat Kraft may get this right, I hope he does. But he woefully underestimated the internal pushback against Rhule. He should have known that from the jump. People can feel free to dismiss it if they want, it's a free country. But my belief is that PK had some misreads early in this process. He can still salvage it. There's a long way to go. — NorthernStatePSU I'd take Jon Sumrall and wouldn't think twice. Dude is nails and can coach. Don't care about cultural fit if he wins. Now, if we can get DeBoer or Elko, never mind ... — EpicBeardMan It doesn't matter if Nick Saban decided to coach here for free. If we don't have an NIL budget to match Ohio State, we won't be able to compete with Ohio State on the field. — Got GSPs Just in case anyone (or everyone) has forgot, there are only three active college coaches who have won national championships. Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart both have two, and Ryan Day has one. Everyone else is a handicapped wannabe. So, what exactly is that "swinging for the fence" that Kraft is supposedly doing? It's all based on per- ceived outcomes from anyone on the list, except the three above. He's looking into the same crystal ball that we all are. To believe he'll pick a future national championship coach is simply wishful think- ing from the fanbase. There is just so much that goes into every national championship: NIL money, portal selections and losses, your team's geographical location as an enticement or detriment to drawing elite athletes, facilities, team historical significance, injuries before and during the season, and so many other intangibles along the way. Good luck, Pat. You're going to need it. — Nitneelyin 4 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 Manny Diaz was Penn State's defensive coordinator for two seasons and is now head coach at Duke. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS