Penn State Coaching Delay Tied to Serious Conflict: Report
December 2, 2025
3,984
After a whirlwind of coaching carousel news this past weekend, the Penn State Nittany Lions remain as one of the only high-profile college football program’s without a head coaching replacement.
LSU, Ole Miss, Florida, Auburn and several other prominent programs filled their head coaching vacancies, but Penn State is still without its next program leader for 2026 and beyond.
Penn State fired longtime head coach James Franklin after a 3-3 start to the 2025 season. Franklin has since landed a new head coaching gig with the Virginia Tech Hokies, while the Nittany Lions enter yet another week without a replacement.
During Monday’s episode of “The McShay Show,” college football insider Todd McShay suggested that the delay in Penn State’s coaching search could stem from a serious conflict between Nittany Lions athletic director Patrick Kraft and prominent agent Jimmy Sexton.
More Football: Alex Golesh Announces ‘Plan’ for Auburn’s DJ Durkin
Sexton represents many of the top coaching talents in college football, including Franklin.
The CAA agent was reportedly displeased by the abrupt nature of Franklin’s dismissal on Oct. 12, leading to a rift between him and Kraft.
“Jimmy Sexton, as I mentioned, is the most powerful man in college sports and is orchestrating a lot of this stuff,” McShay said. “I mentioned James Franklin is a client of his, right? It left a bad taste in the mouth of Jimmy Sexton. Not a good idea.”
More Football: Steve Spurrier Doesn’t Hold Back on Florida State’s Mike Norvell Decision
Sexton also represents one of Penn State’s rumored coaching targets, JMU head coach Bob Chesney.
Despite reported interest from the Nittany Lions, Chesney is expected to sign a five-year contract with the UCLA Bruins after his ongoing postseason run with the Dukes.
“Chesney was a Sexton client,” McShay added. “… There might have been a flight where Kraft was called mid-flight to go see Chesney, and (Sexton) told him, ‘Let’s not do that. Chesney is going to UCLA.'”
Penn State is now reportedly focused on BYU head coach Kalani Sitake as its top target.
Um die besten Erfahrungen zu bieten, verwenden wir Technologien wie Cookies, um Geräteinformationen zu speichern und/oder darauf zuzugreifen. Wenn Sie diesen Technologien zustimmen, können wir Daten wie das Surfverhalten oder eindeutige IDs auf dieser Website verarbeiten. Die Nichteinwilligung oder der Widerruf der Einwilligung kann bestimmte Merkmale und Funktionen beeinträchtigen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
