Football fans have quickly begun speculating what may be next for former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll after he was let go by the organization on Monday. This led former NFL punter Pat McAfee to throw out a potential fit for Daboll at the collegiate level.
Daboll hasn’t coached collegiately since briefly serving as an offensive coordinator under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2017. Notably, this lone season with the Crimson Tide was a wildly successful one, helping the program win a National Championship.
With no prior head coaching experience at the college level, Daboll isn’t exactly the first name to come to mind for most regarding some of the top head coaching vacancies across college football. However, Pat McAfee shared why he believes Daboll could be a “home run” fire for Penn State athletic director Patrick Kraft.
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“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 on Wednesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show”. “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.”
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McAfee’s comments come after a photo emerged of Daboll wearing a Penn State hoodie following his firing from the Giants, which naturally created plenty of speculation that he may at least have an interest in the job.
It could be entirely possible that fans may be reading too far into Daboll wearing Penn State apparel. However, there are notable ties within the Daboll family to the program. His son, Christian Daboll, spent three seasons as a student coach with the Nittany Lions before ultimately spending time with his dad on the Giants coaching staff.
While it is unclear whether there is any interest from Penn State in bringing in Daboll, it sure seems like the Nittany Lions program would be at the top of his wish list of schools to potentially coach at if he is open to a return to coaching collegiately.
More NFL jobs could also emerge as we approach the end of the 2025 NFL regular season. So at this point, it truly seems like everything may still be on the table for Daboll as he figures out his future in coaching.
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