Penn State Coaching Search Hits New Low After Crumbl Cookies Blocks Hire

Penn State fired James Franklin because they failed to live up to their massive National Championship expectations from this preseason.

Since firing him, to say they have had bad luck landing a high-profile head coach would be an understatement.

While the big fish, Lane Kiffin, departed Ole Miss for LSU, Penn State never had a real chance there. However, Matt Rhule’s extension with Nebraska and Curt Cignetti’s extension with Indiana following Franklin’s firing is undoubtedly sour news for the Nittany Lions.

More embarrassingly, Penn State was pushing to hire BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, who has turned around the Cougars into a respectable program.

But the CEO of Crumbl Cookies, Jason McGowan, got to work. On Tuesday night, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that BYU was working on a lucrative contract offer to keep Sitake in Utah long term.

Crumbl was started in Utah in 2017 – and now the national cookie empire prohibited Penn State from hiring yet another head coach.

Getting outbid by a cookie brand is pretty embarrassing. So much so that Penn State trolls, Big Ten foes and BYU fans celebrated this move by ordering Crumbl to celebrate this news on Tuesday. Some fans even delivered the infamous, sugary treats in their famous pink boxes to the dark, cold doorstep of Penn State’s athletic department.

With Sitake remaining in Utah, Penn State’s ongoing quest to find a head coach rolls on.

Kentucky stunningly fired Mark Stoops despite a $38 million buyout and quickly replaced him with Oregon Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein, who is one of the bright young minds in football.

Penn State swallowed an even bigger bill when they paid Franklin nearly $50 million to go away. He quickly landed on his feet, assuming the vacant head coach job at Virginia Tech, where he will not face the pressure of big games.

Finding somebody with a proven track record of winning big games will become really difficult for Penn State. They could turn their attention to Brian Daboll, who was ousted from the New York Giants in the NFL after entering the season on the hot seat with a rookie quarterback.

He last coached in college football in 2017 with Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide where he served as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline did not land the Kentucky job, which would make Penn State look even more desperate if they hired him. They could remove the interim tag from Terry Smith, who took over when Franklin was fired, but that probably looks even more desperate.

Getting outbid by a pink-boxed cookie company is a new low, even for Penn State.