Who are Penn State’s football coaching candidates without James Franklin?

In what was a stunning turn of events, Penn State fired James Franklin on Sunday morning after his team followed a home loss to Oregon with a shocking defeat at UCLA and then lost to another big underdog, Northwestern. Franklin’s firing and the fact that Penn State is burning through about $45 million in its buyout means AD Pat Kraft likely has a plan for what the school will do in its coaching search.

There are two obvious favorites for this vacancy. Both are Big Ten coaches with strong local ties.

While Penn State lost to Northwestern, Curt Cignetti’s Indiana team achieved another big piece of college football news as the Hoosiers won at Oregon. The 64-year-old Pittsburgh native has done a remarkable job at IU. He brought with him a group of good players from James Madison, built a great staff and completely changed the mentality in Bloomington. He talked big and won bigger. He led Indiana to the College Football Playoff his first year and is 17-2 midway through his sophomore season. If there’s one standout hire for Penn State, it would be Cignetti.

The way his team handled Oregon, with six sacks of a quarterback who had only been picked off once before this season, along with 30 points to Autzen, speaks volumes about how Cignetti has elevated this program. This win at Oregon is bigger than any game Penn State has won in years. Cignetti would owe Indiana $13 million if he left Indiana before Dec. 1, and $10 million after that.

The other favorite is Kraft’s friend Matt Rhule, the Nebraska head coach. They worked together when Kraft was AD at Temple and Rhule was the Owls’ head coach.

“Matt loves Pat and Pat loves Matt,” an industry source said. Athletics Sunday.

The 50-year-old led the Owls to back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2015 and 2016, including a 27-10 victory over Penn State in 2015. Rhule is a former Nittany Lions linebacker and also did an exceptional job at Baylor in a very difficult situation. He has many deep ties to Happy Valley.

Rhule is in his third season at Lincoln, and the Huskers have improved each year, going from 5-7 to 7-6 to 5-1 this year. It’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to say no to his alma mater or his former boss. Rhule would owe Nebraska $5 million if he left.

If Penn State fails to land one, the search appears to get a lot simpler. We heard Sunday morning that Kraft might be considering Duke’s Manny Diaz. He has really impressed people within the Penn State program during his two years (2022-23) as Franklin’s defensive coordinator. Diaz has done good things in three seasons as Miami’s head coach, going 21-15 with one Top 25 season. His tenure at Duke thus far has been more impressive, with the Blue Devils going 13-6 overall and 8-3 in ACC play.

Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, who did a very good job at his alma mater, is another potential option. The 43-year-old, who has worked at several other academically strong schools, has Vandy at 5-1 this season after leading the Commodores to a bowl game last year.

Iowa State’s Matt Campbell, 45, is also highly regarded. He led ISU to its best season in school history in 2020 when the Cyclones finished 9th in the nation. The program saw a decline but rebounded. Iowa State is 5-2 this season despite its secondary being ravaged by injuries. He has had great success in a program that has struggled greatly over the years.

Iowa State hasn’t won a conference championship since 1912, but it played for the Big 12 title twice under Campbell. We’ve heard the NFL would be a more likely destination if Campbell leaves Ames, but the job at Penn State is huge.