Dave Joyner is on the hot seat, and that seat is seemingly growing warmer by the day.
As Penn State’s now marathon-long coaching search drags on, several members of the Penn State community are starting to voice their displeasure over both the lack of a hire at this point and the search process in general. Whether it be players, current coaches, parents, former lettermen or fans, everyone has started to grow impatient with Joyner and the search committee at this point, and most are now starting to ask him directly for answers.
Sources tell Laschout that within the last 48 hours, Joyner has been directly confronted by both former lettermen and members of the current coaching staff both demanding updates on the status of the search.
The fomer players group reportedly is being led by former Penn State all-American linebackers Brandon Short and Lavar Arrington. Both are said to be leading the charge to set up a face to face meeting with Joyner this week to discuss what is going on. To this point, any inquiries from former lettermen have been met with blow-off comments such as “we’re working on it,” or “just trust me.” After weeks of getting no answers or insight, the former players are pressing the issue at this point and doing everything in their power to get involved.
Ditto for the current coaching staff.
Sources in Dallas tell us at least one coach approached Joyner after the game yesterday relaying his displeasure in not having a new coach by this point. As one could imagine, the coaches feel as if they are in complete limbo right now, and none of them have any concrete ideas on what their futures are at Penn State. Furthermore, as was evident by the game result, the situation around the team leading up to the TicketCity bowl was described as tenuous at best. Coaches and players alike had seemingly “packed it in” and were more concerned with what their futures at Penn State would be than in the football game that was played yesterday. Further complicating the matter, multiple defensive assistant coaches have current offers on the table from major BCS schools for assistant coaching roles. While sources tell us the majority of them want to stay at Penn State, the lack of any information coming from Joyner regarding their futures is being perceived as a major slight.
On Joyner’s end, he surely has not helped himself at all with what many deem to be an arrogant attitude throughout the search. Multiple people have told us “he thinks and acts like he’s the smartest guy in the room.” We’ve also been told that Joyner himself has intentionally given media outlets blatantly false information and allowed them to print stories based on knowingly false comments directly coming from him. Several somewhat respected beat writers have been made to look like fools because of these actions.
At the end of the day, this search is either going to go down as the best run search ever ending with a home run hire, or Dave Joyner’s legacy at Penn State will be stained forever. Hopefully we will find out in the next few days.
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