Well, you can't blame Penn State for trying, can you? The Nittany Lions are conducting what by their own admission has a been a "deliberate and measured" search for Joe Paterno's replacement and are the final FBS team to fill their 2011 head coaching vacancy. But any complaints would have been quickly silenced if they could become the program that finally pries away Chris Petersen from Boise State. It's no surprise a Penn St. official reportedly visited Idaho twice last week in an effort to make the program's pitch to Petersen.
But like every other previous suitor for the Bronco coach's services, that pitch has fallen on deaf ears--if it was ever even heard in the first place. The Patriot-News's David Jones has reported that Petersen "has made it known he is not interested in Penn State's vacant head coaching position."
Jones writes that the decision is "no shocker," and surely it isn't; after he turned down all manner of high-profile jobs the previous several offseasons (including UCLA earlier this month), convincing Petersen to take a scandal-plagued position that several lesser coaches have already shied away from was always the longest of long shots.
But given the position Penn State finds itself in -- no coach and not even any real leads on one, with Signing Day rapidly approaching and the fanbase growing more nervous by the day -- Petersen was the kind of prize that was worth taking that shot anyway. The only criticism to be made is if that shot came out of desperation, and with it having failed, the search is poised to go on for several more days ... or even weeks.
