Kalani Sitake sends Penn State coaching search back to drawing board again as sixth target to spurn interest

Tuesday was the most dramatic day of the Penn State coaching search, as their pursuit of BYU coach Kalani Sitake seemed to be completed, only for BYU's donors to rally and lock Sitake into an extension in Provo. 

Penn State getting spurned by a Sitake extension continued a trend of their coaching search, where most of the top candidates for the job have opted to re-sign with their current schools rather than make the jump to Happy Valley. At this point, six coaches who were presumptive targets of Penn State have signed lucrative contract extensions instead of taking over the Nittany Lions, and it's not abundantly clear where Penn State turns from here. 

Cignetti and Elko received raises that pushed them into the list of top 10 highest-paid coaches thanks to strong seasons and looming interest from Penn State. Drinkwitz got bumped to over $10 million per year to stay at Missouri. While Rhule didn't get a raise, he did tack on two years and $25 million to his Nebraska deal. Lea had been the lowest-paid coach in the SEC, but his new extension should bring him closer to his league peers and includes further investment in Vanderbilt's facilities. Sitake will likely end up among the highest-paid coaches in the Big 12 as the beneficiary of a major push by BYU donors to keep him from leaving for State College.

Even without knowing the exact figures for Lea and Sitake -- details at private schools are notoriously hard to obtain -- it's clear that Penn State's firing of James Franklin has become one of the greatest coaching stimulus packages in college football history.

And this list may grow. Louisville's Jeff Brohm is expected to draw Penn State's interest after the Nittany Lions missed on Sitake, but as with the BYU coach, Brohm is at his alma mater and Louisville has the financial backing of a major food conglomerate. After getting thwarted by a cookie CEO (and others), Penn State could soon find itself battling Colonel Sanders.

Openings at Florida and Auburn also aided these extension negotiations, particularly for Lea and Drinkwitz. But the lack of a clear, go-get target for Penn State -- in the way Alex Golesh was for Auburn and Jon Sumrall was for Florida -- is what made the Nittany Lions such an easy leverage point for agents.

As Penn State turns to whatever counts as Plan B (or, more accurately, Plan C or Plan D), the program needs a hard look in the mirror. This search has been an embarrassment, largely because athletic director Pat Kraft and the administration have vastly overestimated how the Penn State job is viewed nationally.

Penn State has been operating like a truly elite program, but the market is telling a different story. You don't pry coaches from other good jobs or their alma maters unless you're the destination job (see: LSU). Penn State is learning a harsh truth: most coaches don't view it that way.

It's a good job -- but probably the fifth-best in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan and USC. Expectations, as evidenced by the frustration with Franklin, are to win titles, and Penn State hasn't done that at the conference level since 2016 or nationally since the 1980s. It's not hard to see why coaches would hesitate to leave a comfortable situation for a place where meeting those expectations will be difficult.

That's not to say certain coaches wouldn't welcome the challenge. But Penn State aimed for splash hires, and those coaches used the interest to secure extensions elsewhere. Meanwhile, the top Group of Five candidates have been scooped up, leaving the Nittany Lions without many clear options.

Someone will eventually take the job, and missing out on big names could even be a blessing in disguise. Landing your top target is no guarantee of success; sometimes the coach fans resist ends up being the one they need. Penn State still has significant resources, and Franklin proved that sustained winning is achievable there.

But if this search doesn't reset expectations to a more realistic level -- at least in the short term -- Penn State could soon find itself back on the market, fueling yet another round of lucrative extensions across the sport.