While the furor around Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule and the potential that he might go to Penn State has died down, the rumors haven't ended. In fact, one CBS Sports analyst just named Rhule as the continued top candidate for Penn State, even after some think the interest might have waned after his team's loss to Minnesota.
Tom Fornelli made an appearance on CBS Sports, where all the coaching changes were discussed. The analyst's job was to predict who might take some of the biggest openings, including Florida, Penn State, and LSU. He wasn't exactly dropping a nuclear bomb when he picked Rhule to head to the Nittany Lions, though it's clear some Husker fans would love for him to stop being brought up.
"I'm not going too far off the board here," Fornelli said when asked about the job in Happy Valley. "I'm going with the most obvious answer, the name that's been floated since the job first came open. It's Nebraska's Matt Rhule.
Analyst cites Rhule’s Penn State ties and success at Nebraska
"Nebraska is off to a very good start this season. I do not think that they're going to finish the year as the fourth-best team in the Big Ten and get to the college football playoff, though."
"But I don't think you can argue with the results that Matt Rhule has had at Nebraska. We are seeing the typical third-year bump that he's had at every single stop that he's been to. And he's also a former Penn State linebacker who has had success at three different stops among the college level. So I think that he makes plenty of sense."
"He's familiar with the program. He knows what they're looking for. He knows what it takes to win there. And also, you know what, Chris? A lot of times when you hire a coach, you kind of think about maybe who he can bring with him in the transfer portal. He's got a pretty good quarterback at Nebraska in Dylan Rayola. Maybe he convinces them to come to State College with him. And now you've fixed your quarterback problem, too."
It's bad enough that Nebraska might lose the head coach that's taking them to two straight bowl games in a decade. Now, Fornelli is also talking about taking the star quarterback. Not great.