It’s almost baffling how long the Penn State coaching search took, and considering how many other programs had already hired a new head coach, it only raised more questions about what Penn State was doing.
Reports indicated on Wednesday night that Penn State may have been meeting with Brian Daboll in New Jersey. There were reportedly two planes from State College to the New York/New Jersey area, with one carrying Mike Rhoades to visit Dylan Mingo and another suggested to be heading to meet with Daboll.
Again, it remains uncertain what was going on during Wednesday, but Joel Klatt had some insight and suggested it was possible that Daboll was a candidate.
As we know now, after Matt Campbell took the PSU job, it’s tough to say this is what happened.
"I do think there's a few names I'd be aware of," Klatt said on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Joel Klatt Show." "I'd be aware of Brian Daboll, obviously last with the New York Giants. I would be pretty surprised if they're not at least talking with a guy like [Louisville head coach] Jeff Brohm or targeting a guy like Jeff Brohm.
"And, you never know, but the fact that it's lasted this long leads me to believe that there's a guy still coaching this week that's a head coach that might be a target."
"Is it [Alabama's] Kalen DeBoer? I don't know. You start to do process of elimination. Why's it taking this long? Why haven't they announced something? Is that coach still coaching? Who's locked up? Who's not locked up? Maybe they're targeting Kalen DeBoer, but I'm not totally sure."
It really did feel like Penn State had some sort of mystery head coach that it was going after.
With Campbell now here, I guess Klatt was right in a sense. There had not been much noise at all about him coming down to State College, but it happened rather quickly once it was announced that Penn State had some interest.
Daboll would have been an interesting hire. After losing his job with the Giants, I assume he would've been interested.