Penn State needs a coach.
Urban Meyer is available.
Let the speculation begin.
The last game Meyer coached for Florida, his Gators beat Joe Paterno and Penn State in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1.
Meyer, then 46, needed a break from coaching. Paterno, having just turned 84, was seemingly going strong.
“He will go down as the greatest football coach in the history of the game. Every young coach, in my opinion, can take a lesson from him,” Meyer said after that game in Tampa, Fla. “If I ever start a coaching school, I’m going to make everybody do a book report on Joe Paterno, and say that’s the way you should act in coaching because that’s college football.”
Now it’s possible Meyer could be the man to replace Paterno, the winningest coach in Division I history whose 46-season run with the Nittany Lions ended because of a child sex-abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach.
The university ousted Paterno and school president Graham Spanier on Wednesday and named defensive coordinator Tom Bradley and Rodney Erickson as interim replacements, respectively. The athletic director is on administrative leave, so no one knows who will be hiring the next coach.
And Meyer’s name certainly won’t be the only one to surface as a possible candidate at Penn State. This, however, is certain: Penn State is going to hire a football coach for the first time since 1966, and one of the most successful in the last decade is on the market.
Even before former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged with being a serial molester — speeding up Paterno’s departure — there had been talk that Penn State officials had reached out to Meyer about eventually replacing their coaching legend.
Meyer has given no indication he’s ready to return to coaching — anywhere. The Ohio State job could also come open at the end of the season, and Meyer is an Ohio native.
But Meyer has made no commitments. And before the Penn State scandal erupted, he was happy just being a college sports fan. Meyer has three children, and his two daughters play college volleyball.
“I’m not worrying about down the road,” Meyer said last week. “I do miss it. I miss a lot of things about it, but I also am really enjoying another part, that’s I get to watch my kids play sports.”
Expect Miami coach Al Golden to be mentioned almost as much as Meyer. Golden, 42, was a tight end at Penn State from 1987-91 and was linebackers coach there in 2000, the season after Sandusky retired.
Golden went on to become coach at Temple in Philadelphia. In four years there, he revitalized a program that was one of the worst in college football. Miami hired him away after last season and he unexpectedly walked into a massive NCAA investigation. Despite the tumult, his Hurricanes are 5-4.
“We’re excited about what we’re building here. I can’t worry about what other people are saying,” Golden said.
Another guy to consider is Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who is 56 years old, so he’s got another quarter-century ahead of him, by Penn State standards.
If the school is looking for someone with impeccable character to lead the program out of this sordid scandal, former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy could be a fit.
Still, the Meyer-to-Penn State talk had already started before Happy Valley turned gloomy. It will only get louder from here.
