Gopher Rival Fires Head Coach; Could PJ Fleck be on Their Radar?

Sometimes life comes at you fast. A few weeks ago the Penn State Nittany Lions were the second ranked team in the country. Then they lost to Oregon and the wheels fell off. The Minnesota Gophers just beat Purdue in gritty fashion, but P.J. Fleck nearly knocked off Penn State a year ago.

After three straight losses, and losing potential first round draft pick Drew Allar for the season, things have completely gone off the rails. James Franklin was booed off the field following a home loss to Northwestern this weekend. Fleck is trending in an opposite fashion for the Gophers, and their paths may cross.

Despite a massive contract buyout, Penn State has pulled the plug on their head coach. A search will begin quickly, and Minnesota Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck tends to find his name brought up in recent hiring cycles.

Why would Penn State hire MN Gophers coach P.J. Fleck?

The reality is that Penn State is a blue blood college football program and they aren’t going to accept mediocrity. That reality was made evident in pulling the plug on Franklin despite owing him more than $50 million simply to go away.

The financial outlay to Franklin may make it a bit more enticing to go after a coach that won’t come with the most substantial payday. Fleck was very close to leaving Minnesota for the UCLA job, and he’s definitely open to the idea of an upward move. While he hasn’t reached the mountaintop with the Gophers, he has been the most successful coach in recent history.

Of course Fleck’s agent, Bryan Harlan, loves when his client’s name is in the news. It’s a level of publicity that doesn’t go unnoticed, and being tied to premium jobs is hardly a negative. Penn State plays a similar style to what the Minnesota Gophers strive for, and that strategy could seemingly transfer schools as well.

Why Penn State won’t hire P.J. Fleck from Minnesota

Certainly it’s unlikely that a school like Penn State, with unlimited funds, is worried about what they pay their next coach. They just agreed to pay more than $50 million simply to make James Franklin go away. The boosters are ready to win again, and getting back to the Big Ten title game, and College Football Playoff is a must.

There’s a pretty simple answer if they want to look within the conference, and that comes in the form of Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti. You may not have heard of him before he landed in Bloomington, but you absolutely know his name now.

Cignetti is from Pennsylvania and has taken the Hoosiers from an afterthought as a football program, to a top five team in the country. He may say publicly he’s not interested in jumping ship, but a blank check could speak volumes.

Fleck has done wonders for the Gophers, but someone like Cignetti or even current Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule have a more impressive track record. There’s also little chance the “Row the Boat” mantra plays the same way it does in a place not worried about catchy slogans.

It doesn’t seem like this should be hard for Penn State to figure out their next head coach. The difficult decision was to rip off the buyout band-aid. That’s gone and the door is wide open.