Penn State’s coaching search has gone from silent to seismic in Week 5, and the newest tremor has a name everyone knows. Kalen DeBoer. For a month, the Nittany Lions ran the quietest search in America for James Franklin’s successor. And now suddenly, the volume is impossible to ignore. And the next layer of this story only gets louder.

On November 21, Centre Daily Times’ Jon Sauber dropped a grenade on Tide 100.9’s The Game with Ryan Fowler. 

“He’s been one of Penn State’s top targets from the beginning,” he said. “The loss to Oklahoma nudged the door open a little bit. I still think Alabama would have to miss the playoffs to make this a real possibility, which, obviously, would include a loss to Auburn to end the year… He’s been the top target since early on.”

The report says Kalen DeBoer isn’t merely an option. He’s the primary target. The list had the usual respectable names like Marcus Freeman, Bob Chesney, Brent Key. But none of them shook the fan base like the Alabama head coach sitting at No. 2. Why second on the list but first in PSU’s heart? There’s a twist there.

Sauber’s explanation is blunt. Kalen DeBoer is the preferred candidate, but ranked lower only because stealing Alabama’s coach feels impossible. Poaching the man in charge of the Crimson Tide requires chaos. But chaos might be arriving early in Tuscaloosa. Because while the Tide aren’t drowning, they’re definitely sputtering.

Last week’s 23-21 loss to Oklahoma was the first crack. Another stumble to Auburn could skyrocket tension inside the program and make Kalen DeBoer more likely to bolt. Sauber even questions the HC’s long-term fit in Bama’s dynasty shadow, noting donors and fans are already uneasy. And that creates one outcome everyone has whispered about but never said out loud.

Kalen DeBoer might not get pushed out. He might simply walk away first. At 8-2 with the No. 10 Tide, winning isn’t his problem. Surviving Alabama’s furnace is. Penn State believes it can offer what Tuscaloosa never will. Room to breathe, patience, and a runway to shape a program instead of defending a dynasty. And that’s where the conversation shifts from speculation to strategy.

His Big Ten roots, starting with Indiana’s 2019 offensive revival as the OC/QB coach, only make the fit cleaner. Add in culture-building wins at Fresno State, Washington, and now Alabama, and you see why PSU insiders are smitten. At Fresno State, he went 12-6. At Washington, he went 25-3, took the Huskies to back-to-back bowls, and finished 14-1 in 2023 with a trip to the National Championship. And now at Alabama, he’s posted a 31.6 points-per-game offense, a 17.8 points-allowed profile, and a 13.8-point differential that ranks 13th nationally, all in just Year 2. But then came the pushback, and the narrative took another twist.

What insiders are actually saying about Kalen DeBoer

On3’s Chris Low’s delivered the line that sent Penn State fans right back into the fog of uncertainty. 

“I talked to somebody pretty close to Kalen last night, and they said, no,” he said during his appearance on McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning. “Somebody I talked to who was close to Kalen said that that was not accurate. But you know what, things change. You guys know that the coaching carousel’s cycle, there’s a lot of fluidity to it, but my information last night, I talked to somebody close to him that know that that’s not gonna happen.”

But he wasn’t the only heavyweight stepping in. On Friday, CBS Sports’ Josh Pate chimed in with his own extinguisher on the rising Kalen DeBoer smoke.

“I do think Penn State has zeroed in on their guy in recent days,” he said. “I don’t expect Kalen DeBoer to be involved.”

That’s a strong, declarative statement exactly the kind that usually calms a fanbase. Except it didn’t. Instead, it only deepened the mystery. Because when two plugged-in voices go out of their way to push back this hard, fans start asking whether they’re hearing clarity or deliberate misdirection.

Still, all the denials collide head-on with the one thing you can’t deny. Kalen DeBoer’s resume. Whether insiders say yes, no, or not yet, the fit between him and Penn State is quite clean.