Penn State fans are staring at a UCLA box score and deciding they hired the wrong man. Slow down. A couple of September blowouts don't make Bob Chesney the one that got away, and anyone crowning him over Matt Campbell this early is arguing with a highlight reel.
Penn State moved on from James Franklin, brought Chesney in for an interview, and passed. Then it handed Iowa State's Matt Campbell an eight-year deal. Chesney landed at UCLA, and early in his first season there he's been scoring in bunches: UCLA ran past Maryland 54-3 and beat Purdue 52-38. Both are Big Ten teams, the same league Penn State plays in. For a program that just told Chesney no, watching him take apart two conference opponents looks bad.
Looking bad doesn't mean Penn State got it wrong. Chesney built his name at James Madison, and his FBS head-coaching record is thin. Handing one of the bluest-blood jobs in the sport to a coach with that little Power-conference experience was a real gamble. If that risk is what gave Penn State cold feet, it holds up.
The search is what stinks. Pat Kraft dragged Penn State through a coaching hunt that turned into public theater, interviewing names from Chesney to Mike Munchak while the whole sport watched him flail. By the time it ended, the process had become a referendum on Kraft himself. Run a search that messy, and every mid-major coach who lights it up somewhere else starts to look like an accusation. Kraft built that trap for himself before Campbell ever coached a down.
Campbell deserves the runway. Penn State fans of a certain age remember Franklin wasn't an overnight hit either, and no coach rebuilds a roster and his own recruiting classes in a few months. Judging Campbell on a season he's barely started is exactly as silly as judging Chesney on two Saturdays. Give the man his recruiting classes before you write the obituary.
Penn State didn't necessarily pick the wrong coach. It's far too soon to know. What it did do is hand the critics a loaded gun: the search was long and messy, and the candidate it turned away is now winning in its own conference. If this curdles into the miss everyone's bracing for, Kraft doesn't get to shrug and blame the market. He had Chesney in the building and let him walk.
