Now that James Franklin and Virginia Tech are paired off together, and Lane Kiffin has two major SEC powerhourses occupied, a school like Penn State can really get some homework done on their head coaching search.
Behind LSU and Florida, Penn State is arguably the next best job available, and this week, a new hot board dropped regarding their search, which has been tight-lipped and without many updates so far.
However, Penn State reporter Jon Sauber got the conversation rolling with his latest top-five list of targets he published this week, edition 4.0 of his Penn State coaching board, so he calls it. Names like Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, Bob Chesney at JMU, and Brent Key down at Georgia Tech all made the list, but it was the name at No. 2 that really shocked a certain fanbase down south, and that’s Kalen DeBoer, you know, Alabama’s current second-year head coach.
“DeBoer is the other candidate at the top of the list right now and is still the program’s primary target,” Sauber wrote of DeBoer. Not only is DeBoer a fixture in the job search, Sauber flat-out states that he is the Nittany Lions’ No. 1 choice, but remains second on the board for the obvious reason that it may be impossible to nab him from Tuscaloosa. After all, the 2025 season hasn’t been a home run success story but DeBoer has the lads in plenty good enough position for just his second year.
Sauber predicts, though, that a continued backslide for ‘Bama down the stretch of the season could throw gasoline on a prickly situation. “That being said, the Alabama head coach is much more likely now than he was last week after the Crimson Tide lost to Oklahoma,” Sauber noted in his piece. “If they lose to Auburn to close out the season, likely guaranteeing they miss the playoff, the tension will be high in Tuscaloosa.”
If Alabama does fall totally out of the College Football Playoff picture, perhaps the noise does get loud enough to push DeBoer towards a different job with fans who will hound him slightly less. “He’s not a great fit at the program already,” notes Sauber, “and not making the CFP in his first two seasons will have the fan base — and more importantly, donors — on edge.”
Still, it feels like a long shot Alabama would actually fire Kalen DeBoer this early, so you’d probably be banking on him choosing to leave for Penn State. Again, it’s possible, if DeBoer is made that uncomfortable by fans, but what would his image look like if he was scared away from Alabama just to go to… Penn State. Keep an eye on him, but a lot would still likely need to happen, in a negative direction, to truly push Kalen DeBoer out of town.
