If you don't think Penn State is a destination job then that means you must think there are about 10 or so destination jobs in the whole country.
A destination job has nothing to do with recent success. If there was recent success then a school wouldn't need a new coach would they?
What was Alabama's success prior to Saban? How about USC before Pete Carroll?
A destination job is a place where
1 You can get top pay
2 You have top notch facilities
3 You have a fertile recruiting territory
4 You have fan support
5 The school does not have a history of changing coaches every couple years AKA job security
Basically, can you get paid, and does the job have everything you need to win. That is a destination job.
Penn State is clearly a destination job. They check every box.
Even through sanction, Franklin has recruited well. The problem is that O'Brien did not so right now the juniors and seniors are mostly walkons and 3 star type guys. In particular, O'Brien recruited almost nothing on OL or DL and those are the main weaknesses now.
I don't believe Franklin is going anywhere until at least 2018. It would be premature to fire him when the team is not even at full strength yet.
I would not want Les Miles at all. He's a terrible coach. He was a good recruiter down south but i doubt he'd be as successful recruiting up north. I was really hoping he got the Michigan job last year.
Say what you want about Franklin, but he was smart enough to fire the OC and his friend John Donovan, when the offense was putrid. The new OC Joe Moorhead is a huge upgrade and the offense has been much better. The OL still stinks so they are outmatched against a team like Michigan but they will move the ball plenty against non-elite teams. Les Miles has had a crap offense for years.
Is LSU a desirable job? You will be fired if you don't win or come close to a national championship within about 3 years. Look at Auburn. Chizik actually won a NC and he was fired just a few seasons later. Malzahn may have a foot out the door soon too.
I think right now that Houston is a better job than LSU. That is provided Herman can convince Houston to invest in the program, build better facilities.
There is another definition of a destination job. Any place you and your family are happy.
Fans and media forget that coaches are people with the same family issues as everybody else. Every day, regular working folks turn down promotions that would mean more money but moving to a different city. Why? Because they are happy where they are.
Lovie Smith took the University of Illinois job. Is that a destination job? It could be for him. He's getting older. It's a relatively low pressure job. If he wins 7 games most years and 9 or 10 every about once every 4 years and maybe make the Big 10 Championship game, he can probably keep that job for life. And maybe he will if he's happy there.
David Shaw at Stanford will be offered every job. But from what he's said Stanford is his destination job. He loves it there. He may never be able to win a championship there but he has job security and lives in a beautiful area
With the new college playoff which is likely to expand soon, there are far more "destination jobs" because there are far more schools where you can win big. Prior to the playoffs, a job like Houston would not even be considered as anything but a stepping stone. But now if they get in the Big 12, you can win there and get to a playoff.
I don't know if Herman likes the Houston area or if he has aspirations to go to the NFL or any of that. If he likes being a college coach and his family likes Houston then it's a destination job. If he wants to go to the NFL then he may have to prove himself at a school in a bigger conference so maybe he jumps ship to LSU and tries to make his name taking down Bama.
