Pat McAfee pitches Brian Daboll as next Penn State coach

Pat McAfee believes Brian Daboll to Penn State would be a perfect match. Daboll was recently fired as the coach of the New York Giants, opening the opportunity for him to return to the college game.

Although he has never been a head coach in the college ranks, he did have a brief stint as the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2017 under Nick Saban. Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, the opinionated talk show host gave a ringing endorsement for Daboll to the Nittany Lions.

“Daboll getting fired from the Giants seemingly opens the door for Penn State to make a move that everybody will like up there,” McAfee said. “I assume Pat Kraft and everybody that’s making the decision is like, ‘Hold the phone, we got a guy who wants to be here very, very bad seemingly and has a big name.’ That could be a home run for them. …We would like to say to Daboll, if you go to Penn State college football would be pumped. He would be electrifying.”

The comments from McAfee come a couple of days after Daboll was spotted wearing a Penn State hoodie. That caused specualtion as to whether he had spoken with the Nittany Lions about the job opening, as he has no prior connections to the university.

It has been exactly one month since Penn State made the decision to part ways with coach James Franklin, who was in his 12th season. Franklin led the Nittany Lions to the College Football Playoff semifinal in 2024 but had lost three straight games prior to his firing including against a previously winless UCLA team and Northwestern.

Daboll helped Alabama to win the national championship in his lone season in Tuscaloosa before leaving to become the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills. Four years later, he accepted the job as the Giants head coach.

Daboll had a successful first season as a head coach, winning AP NFL Coach of the Year after leading the New York to a 9-7 record and playoff appearance. However, he went a combined 11-35 in the three years that followed as the team finally made the choice to move on.

Sure, there would be some questions about Daboll’s ability to lead a team. The only head coaching experience he has was from the past four years, and that obviously didn’t end well.

But perhaps college would be a different story. It all depends on Daboll’s willingness to embrace the new NIL era of the sport, but McAfee thinks Penn State has the resources to help him succeed.

“James Franklin had 70 employees working away from ball just on everything else that was happening,” he said. “(Daboll) automatically inherits that or maybe there’s a change of structure. Maybe the athletic department kind of runs that kind of stuff. ‘Daboll, you worry about football. We’ll kinda handle everything else if we have to.’

“It feels like Pat Kraft at least understands what it’s supposed to be. I don’t now if he can hands on do it every day, but I think they have a good vision of what it can be with massive financial support behind it. Daboll to Penn State feels like a lock at this exact moment as we sit right here.”