Five days in and Penn State doesn't have a football coach.
Plus, the Nittany Lions just saw what numerous reports and several sources told FootballScoop was their top choice for the job re-up with his current school.
What does it all mean?
Well, Indiana has locked down star coach Curt Cignetti deep into the next decade and in the process made its second-year coach among college football's top-five highest-paid coaches.
In fact, per terms of Cignetti's revamped, eight-year-extended pact, he becomes the nation's No. 3 coach in terms of average annual salary -- $11.6 million, just a tick ahead of fellow Big Ten skipper Lincoln Riley and slightly behind the Big Ten salary leader, Ohio State's Ryan Day, as well as Georgia's Kirby Smart. His average deal of almost $13.3 million is the sport's top deal and also significantly above more than half the coaches in the NFL, a source told FootballScoop earlier this month.
Where does that leave Matt Rhule, the third-year Nebraska coach and former Penn State player with the deepest ties to Happy Valley of any perceived top candidate?
Rhule on Thursday went on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show and called his current station a "destination job." He also stressed he must show "love and respect" to his alma mater and close friend, Penn State Athletics Director Pat Kraft.
He was asked by McAfee how he handles what it appears to be a 'kitchen getting hot" with speculation linking Rhule to Penn State's opening, created last Sunday when the school abruptly fired James Franklin in the middle of Franklin's 12th season and a three-game losing skid.
"With my team, it's just unbridled honesty. Tell them the truth, tell. them exactly the truth and don't B.S. them because they'll know," said Rhule, whose current Nebraska salary of $8,5 million annually is almost identical to what Penn State was paying Franklin. "And, um, and, secondly, just out there, this is it. This is part of it. It's better than when I was in Carolina and they were chanting to fire me. So it's better than being on the hot seat, right? Having other schools maybe be interested in you is pretty cool, but I don't do that during the season. I don't mess around with that. I don't play that, and at the same time, this is not a jumping-off job. This is a destination job. This is one of the greatest places in the world. This is a town of 300,000 people. This isn't some ... Everyone says Lincoln? It's 300,000 people here in Lincoln. I can do whatever I want here."
Rhule, who first took the Temple Owls to unprecedented success and then rebuilt Baylor from the ashes of scandal before an unsuccessful stint atop the NFL's Carolina Panthers, is seeking to improve to 13-7 in his last 20 games at Nebraska Saturday when the Cornhuskers play at Big Ten foe Minnesota.
He stressed that he's pleased with the rebuild at Nebraska and touted the future of the program -- though he also did not say he unequivocally would not depart Nebraska for Penn State at season's end.
"I have a great young team; the youngest team in the Big Ten," said Rhule, who's had three seasons of 10 or more wins at the collegiate level. "Think about how good we'll be next year. Now, I'm not thinking about next year. But where we are right now, we're learning, learning, learning. Think about where we're going to go with Dylan and all these guys. So, I refuse to be distracted.
"At the same time, when it's your alma mater you have to show it love and respect. And I love Pat Kraft. They'll find the right coach for them, whoever that is. But, this is a destination job that should be a national bully, that should be a beast. And I think we're making our way to doing that."