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The Penn State Nittany Lions are in the midst of a highly-publicized search for their next head football coach following the dismissal of James Franklin earlier this year. After the program fired Franklin, college football coaching legend Urban Meyer was quickly linked to the vacancy by swirling coaching carousel rumors. In a recent report, Zach Gelb of Audacy said Meyer spoke to Penn State higher-ups with interest in taking over as the football program's next head coach. Talks reportedly broke down due to Meyer's lack of coaching experience in the NIL era. “I’ve talked to two sources, and two sources told me that Urban Meyer had a great interest level in becoming the next head football coach at Penn State,” Gelb said. “And those sources told me he had conversations with the powers that be at Penn State about becoming their next head football coach. "The reason why those talks did break down is when they got to the topic of NIL, which Urban Meyer has never been a head coach during the NIL era. His plan and his answers in terms of navigating those name, image, and likeness waters were not viewed satisfactory enough. And that’s ultimately why Penn State is not going to view Urban Meyer as a fit for their program." More Football: JK Dobbins Sends Blunt Wake-Up Call to Broncos Offense Meyer confidently denied this report during the most recent episode of "The Triple Option" podcast. “Who is the guy [Zach Gelb] again? My phone started blowing up,” Meyer said, via On3 Sports. “And he has two sources that said that I met with the Senator … we became friends, Rob you were there, with Dave McCormick when we covered a Penn State game, and I stayed in touch with him, and we had breakfast in the Capitol, and we talked politics. "Then there’s another one … The source says that I had conversations with Penn State about the NIL, and I didn’t know how to handle the NIL or so. So come on, that never happened … How do we get the two sources on our show here? Just cracks me up.” Gelb doubled down on his reporting, calling on Meyer to take a lie detector test. "What cracks me up is, clearly he didn't listen to my report," Gelb responded. "... Because I never mentioned the senator in any of that..." More Football: Ryan Clark Predicts Conference-Altering SEC Upset in Week 11 "He's one of the greatest coaches of all time. He had interest in the Penn State job, and Penn State rejected him because of NIL," he continued. "That's what I was told and I will stand by that. That is where the talks did break down. Urban was interested in the job. "... How about you come into studio, we hook you up to a lie detector test and I'll ask you a simple question: Were you ever interested in the Penn State job?" Either way, it appears Penn State will be looking elsewhere for their next head coach. The Nittany Lions will face off against the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers in a Big Ten matchup on Saturday afternoon.
