As the coaching search in Texas continues to drag on, the hunt for Bill O'Brien's replacement at Penn State is rapidly nearing its conclusion. While there were only a handful of candidates to begin with (unlike the Texas search, which started with every single person currently coaching, then narrowed that down to ~147 people as of this morning), those names have already been winnowed down to two: Miami's Al Golden and Vanderbilt's James Franklin.
Here's how things stand as of Friday: The Penn State athletic department quickly narrowed their list down to Miami HC Al Golden, Vanderbilt HC James Franklin and Tennessee Titans HC Mike Munchak. Munchak was quickly removed from consideration when the Titans decided to retain him for next season, which was up in the air until Friday morning.
Golden will interview either Friday afternoon or over the weekend. He considers Penn State "home", which isn't a surprise when you find out he grew up in nearby New Jersey and played TE at PSU for four years as a college student. Golden briefly joined Joe Paterno's coaching staff at PSU in 2000 as linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator, but left for Virginia after just one year to move up to defensive coordinator for Al Groh's Cavaliers.
After five seasons in Virginia, Golden left to take over at Temple, where he quickly turned the Owls into a solid team despite years of mediocrity before he arrived. His work at Temple caught the eye of numerous programs, and Golden was tabbed as a possible Paterno successor back when it looked like JoePa would be retiring on his own schedule.
Golden ended up taking the Miami head coaching job in 2011, shortly before news of the Sandusky scandal began to surface. At Miami, Golden has improved the Hurricanes' record each successive year, and he's kept the program competitive despite an ongoing NCAA investigation into possible violations committed by his predecessors. Golden is currently the odds-on favorite for the Penn State job, and although reports that he'd already been offered the position are false, that could very well happen as soon as this weekend.
Franklin is a more complicated case. Franklin has definite interest in the PSU job - he reached out to the athletic department in mid-December, back when word of O'Brien's possible departure first surfaced - but he's also being courted by the University of Texas, who PSU just can't compete with in terms of resources or recruiting clout.
Still, Franklin is a Pennsylvania guy - he played at nearby East Stroudsburg, and got his coaching start at Kutztown. It's impossible to know how much that weighs on his decision-making, but if Penn State swoops in and offers Franklin the job before Texas gets to him, we have every reason to believe he'd take it. 
Franklin has worked with a variety of schools as an offensive position coach, but he made his breakthrough as Ralph Friedgen's offensive coordinator at Maryland back in 2008. After several successful seasons, Franklin took the HC job with Vanderbilt, an academic powerhouse with the poor fortune of playing in the nation's most stacked football conference. While expectations were low in the SEC, Franklin managed to make Vanderbilt competitive, leading the Commodores to a 23-15 overall record and three bowl appearances in three years.
If Penn State is interviewing both candidates this weekend (which we've been led to believe they are), the race is a dead heat. Franklin appeared to be in pole position early this week, but Golden has apparently gained serious ground.
At the end of the day, this is a win-win situation for Penn State. Two years ago, the idea of two in-demand coaches vying for the PSU job seemed out of the question, but Franklin and Golden would both be excellent successors to Bill O'Brien.
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