The college football coaching carousel is up and running and it would not be a shocker to see an assistant on Penn State’s staff to get some calls. One assistant reportedly on the radar for a head coaching job is co-offensive coordinator Ja’Juan Seider.
As reported by Football Scoop, Seider has been on the list of potential candidates to fill a head coaching vacancy at FAU. FAU fired Tom Herman as head coach following a loss to Temple last week as the FAU Owls fell to a disappointing record of 2-8. Herman was just 6-16 in his two seasons with the program.
Seider would check off a number of bullet points that would make for an attractive coaching hire for the FAU program. Seider is a Florida native who played a season at Florida A&M following time at West Virginia. He started his coaching career as a high school coach in Florida before getting into the college ranks, including a season as a running backs coach for Florida before moving to Penn State for the past seven seasons. Seider has put in his time as an assistant and gained valuable experience under Franklin, and his time to become a head coach may have arrived.
Seider is not necessarily considered a favorite for the FAU job, but he is clearly a name to watch. FAU likely won’t be hiring a head coach from somewhere else, so a rising offensive coordinator type seems to fit the ideal mold for what the program is looking for. Football Scoop also mentions SMU offensive line coach Garin Justice as a candidate for the job.
It is expected FAU will be ready to hire a head coach in the next week. The timing of that would seem to make some sense given that Penn State and SMU will be wrapping up their respective regular seasons this weekend. SMU will be playing in the ACC championship game next week, and there is still a chance Penn State could be playing for a Big Ten title next week. Penn State appears to be firmly in position to play in the upcoming College Football Playoff, while SMU may need to win the ACC to secure a playoff spot.
So is Seider coaching his final game with the Nittany L:iosn this weekend at home against Maryland? That remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure. We’ll be watching this particular coaching search with great interest as Seider could be getting his opportunity like a number of former Penn State assistants have received.
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