Once James Franklin was fired midseason, everyone connected the dots between his time as a player in Happy Valley and his tenure as the head coach at Temple with current Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft and highlighted Matt Rhule as the obvious candidate to take over his alma mater. Rhule has since signed an extension to stay put in Nebraska, but he’s not the only current college football head coach with ties to the area.
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko, who has the Aggies at No. 3 in the country with a 9-0 start, is a New Jersey native who played his college football at Penn University.