Not sure I agree that it had to be handled the way it has been handled (especially the timing, the new coach has no shot at saving any of PSU's roster now - you wait until immediately after last reg-season game, have your ducks in a row, then move quickly on the rehire after the firing. Puts new-guy in a much better position to build his 2026 roster between what he would bring with him, what he can salvage from PSU's roster, what he can salvage from PSU's 2026 class and the NIL Portal.). Having said that, once you make the decision to change regimes, it really isn't about what these clowns are saying - you need to hire a coach that has proven he can win after having to build or rebuild a team himself in today's fluid environment - today's environment is nothing like the environment of even 5 years ago, let alone 10 or 20 years ago, radically different environment than just a couple years ago which was only just starting to metastasize after the radical changes which have caused the professionalization of CFB, most especially pay-for-play and unlimited, absolute Free Agency. Kraft has really put his foot in it with the way he has handled this change in regime in this utterly new and still morphing environment. He has done maximum damage to PSU and PSU's roster, while at the same time screwing himself in regards to making a home-run hire (all he has done, by doing this mid-season, is give all these programs the opportunity to keep their coaches away from PSU as none of them can come to terms quickly with PSU while their in the midst of coaching during the season especially if their existing team is going to give them the same "market" pay raise and offer that PSU is. Krafty the Clown has evaported PSU's 2026 roster and literally put it in the wind (especially with Franklin's rehire long before PSU will name a new coach) with very few "proven" options on the new hire - and the list is getting shorter by the day as coach after coach signs pay-raise extensions keeping them where they are at.
At this point, PSU has to hire not only a proven winner, but somebody that has proven they can rebuild a roster essentially from scratch immediately (i.e., bring players with them, bring their former team 2026 recruits with them, use the NIL X-Fer portal, attempt to salvage what they can at PSU, etc....). All this stuff about relative comparisons is nonsense - these idiots act like you can hire whoever you want and can just blithely ignore the HARSH REALITIES of the current situation that Krafty Clownboy has put us in. Drink should be the #1 target at this point - Mizzou is likely to narrowly miss the Playoff. He had tremendous success at Mizzou. He has translated that success to a mediocre-to-bad Mizzou team (he went 11-2 two years ago with a bowl win over duhO$U, 10-3 last year with a bowl win over Iowa and doing well this year).