By Tim Clark / / Penn State, Football, Column, Tim's Two Cents
Two

James Franklin could never quite reach the penthouse at Penn State, so he went through the outhouse instead. As in out the door.

 Sayonara.

Hit the road, James, don’t ya come back no more, no more, no more, no more.

Don’t pass go, and don’t collect…um, about that. One of the things that most thought would be a hold up in firing Franklin was his 50 million dollar buyout with which the former inept AD, Sandy Barbour, saddled the school.

It turns out that Penn State feared losing even more in donor dollars from disgruntled fans that have been complaining about Franklin for years. Rumors of Addidas footing the bill were just that, rumors. Penn State is spending 700 million on stadium renovations and now will pay 50 million for Franklin to not be their coach. Hiring a top coach will also be costly.

These are crazy times.

It is interesting to see a university cry poor —Penn State is closing several branch campuses that were vital to those communities due to lack of funding— and yet have all this money for football plus a President that received a 47% raise. Yea, yea, different budgets. I get it. Still, it is a bad look for a university who is supposed to prioritize higher learning.

Penn State certainly isn’t alone on this front, though Franklin’s buyout is the second largest in history to Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Schools are certainly making it clear that it is a “win or else” mentality driving the sport. Buyouts be damned. Again, I don’t want to hear any of these schools —including my USC Trojans— crying about deficits and money problems.

Oh, and don’t worry about James Franklin. While he is investing his 50 mill buyout money, other teams will come calling. He will land on his feet. I know this because Jimmy Sexton is his agent, and Sexton clients always land a job somewhere. Sexton is the reason all of these coaches’s contracts have these gigantic buyouts. He makes sure his clients —Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, Kalen Deboer, Dabo Swinney, Dan Lanning, and Franklin just to name a few— get paid one way or the other. Schools will need to find new ways to construct contracts because this system isn’t tenable. Or maybe it is. The money may be flowing deeper and faster than any of us know. 

What went wrong?

James Franklin always seemed like a used car salesman to me. He was great at talking and glad handing. He was able to sell recruits on his vision. Taking a deeper dive, however, and you see Franklin was a good recruiter but not great. His recruiting classes often fell between 11 and 15. His player retention was excellent, an important fact in the transfer portal era. Penn State players have littered the NFL Draft over the past 4 or 5 years. At the end of the day, Franklin built rosters capable of winning championships.

Franklin never won those championships.

The problem was, Franklin could never win the big game. I don’t need to recite the numbers you’ve all seen every time you turn on a Penn State game. His teams never proved to be on equal footing with Ohio State, Michigan, or Oregon. Last year he was gifted an unbelievably easy path in the college football playoffs. Once again, Franklin had no answers in the second half, as an inferior Notre Dame team took Franklin down.

In all of those “big games”, Franklin would play ultra conservative and get out coached by the opposition. My God, he was even out coached by Clay Helton in the 2019 Rose Bowl.

This year was the year for Penn State. They brought back a ton of talent from their semifinal team, including five star senior quarterback Drew Allar. I picked Penn State to win it all, citing, “If not now, when?” Franklin, himself, stated this was his most talented team since arriving in Happy Valley. It certainly didn’t shake out that way for my pick or Franklin’s legacy.

The Nittany Lions lost to Oregon in the “White Out” game. A game in which Penn State woke up late and had a lead in overtime. They pushed Oregon to fourth down, but allowed a conversion and then the tying score. They would lose on an Allar interception following an Oregon score in double overtime. I maintain if Penn State stops Oregon in overtime and wins, they would be undefeated right now. They failed to beat Oregon, and then let the wheels come off their season with losses to Big Ten lightweights UCLA and Northwestern. Another annoying quality of Franklin was not having teams ready to play following a loss. Usually they would do just enough to pull off a victory. This year? Wheels. Off.

What’s next for Franklin?

Franklin hated being hated. The boos clearly bothered him. How many times did we watch him look foolish by getting into verbal confrontations with fans. Franklin was famous for saying, “I get it”, when asked about the fan expectation at Penn State. He may have got it, but he obviously hated it and let it bother him. We live in a world where people have been emboldened to say whatever they feel, leaving tact and respect fall by the wayside. Again, these comments kept Franklin up at night. You just know it did.

With the need to maybe feel less pressure and fan angst, a lower key job like Wisconsin or Oklahoma State may be perfect. Schools like those would salivate at the chance to bring in a coach that would win 9 or 10 games every year.

On the other hand, Franklin stated multiple times that he would relish becoming the first African American coach to win a national championship. You don’t win those at Wisconsin or Oklahoma State. In that case, maybe a Florida, Florida State, or Auburn —none of these jobs are currently open but very well could be— would provide that opportunity.

Could a TV network make Franklin an offer he can’t refuse? Maybe he could take Urban Meyer’s pregame spot when he takes the Penn State job. Wink. Wink. Franklin would kill it on TV. There would be no pressure. He could add to the fortune Penn State provided him and live happily ever after.

With Sexton as his agent, I have no doubt Franklin will land somewhere and be paid handsomely. This would also allegedly alleviate Penn State of some of the buyout payment.

What’s next for Penn State?

Penn State AD, Pat Kraft, is in an interesting position. He has only made one hire at Penn State, and that was hiring Mike Rhodes for men’s basketball. Not exactly an inspiring hire. We all know, however, that basketball is on a totally different planet inhabited by few from planet football at Penn State. Kraft said so much yesterday when he stated football is the backbone of the athletic department. I wonder if anyone is as impressed by his giant women’s volleyball championship ring as Kraft is himself. Anyway, Kraft is driving the bus at this point. 

Kraft has two different paths he can navigate for this hire. I think, often times, the best choices are young assistants or head coaches under the radar —Can you say Curt Cignetti?— that bring that certain fire to make a name for themselves on the big stage. The other path is to find a proven head coach that comes with —potentially— more certainty.

Kraft presides over a rabid fanbase that has been clamoring for the team to take the next step and has been screaming from the tops of the Seven Mountains for Franklin’s firing for years. Franklin wasn’t winning the big games, and Penn State fans were yearning for a national championship. Kraft, himself, stated similar expectations for his football program in his press conference.

With that in mind, it is hard to see Penn State handing the reigns over to an unproven head coach. So path two it is. Here are my thoughts on some of the names involved in the search. I will break it into two groups, those that are more realistic and those that are more of a longshot.

More Realistic Possibilities
  • Kenny Dillingham- Young, energetic, always says the right thing, motivator. Dillingham is a great offensive coach. As offensive coordinator, Dillingham made Memphis a top five offense, coached Bo Nix to SEC rookie of the year at Auburn, and orchestrated the high powered Oregon offense for a year. Obviously, he is short on head coaching experience but was an unmitigated success at Arizona State in year one. Dillingham is only 35. He would be at the top of my list.
  • Manny Diaz- An obvious connection to Penn State and Kraft. As defensive coordinator at Penn State in 2023, Diaz resided over one of the best defenses in recent Nittany Lions history history. Diaz is having a solid season at Duke this year. He did flame out spectacularly in the bright lights of Miami. With two years under his belt at Duke, Diaz is probably ready for another shot at the big time.
  • Lane Kiffin- It is required that Kiffin’s name is linked to every coaching vacancy. Kiffin does nothing to stop this from happening, so despite his claimed love of Ole Miss he could probably be lured away. Kiffin is always interesting and out there, which is fun. Do you want that fun at your school? He is a quarterback whisperer, offensively adept, and a great recruiter. Kiffin’s has also been one of the best at dipping into the transfer portal. Does his recent winning ways trump his goofy baggage he brings?
  • Clark Lea- Would Penn State return to Vanderbilt to find a new coach? Lea is working miracles in Nashville with his no nonsense approach. His approach would go over big with a mostly blue collar fan base. He has shown the ability to win big games in a place where it is difficult to win big games. Can he recruit well enough at a place like Penn State? Would Lea be a big enough name to lock in potential recruits?
  • Matt Rhule- Maybe the one guy who seems destined to become Penn State head coach. Rhule went to high school at State College High School, played four years at Penn State, and was a volunteer assistant at Penn State. He worked with Kraft while he was head coach and Kraft was AD at Temple. Many fans are leery because Rhule also has an awful record against ranked opponents. He has always been described as a hard worker and good with the players. Rhule is a builder, taking both Temple and Baylor to 10 and 11 win seasons. He seems to have Nebraska heading in the right direction as well. Another short term benefit would be that Dylan Raiola would almost assuredly come with Rhule.

There are positives and negatives for all of the above candidates. The odds favor one of these gentleman, or someone of their ilk, getting hired.

More of a longshot
  • Nick Saban- Stop it.
  • Urban Meyer- He wins championships for sure. It is almost automatic. He also brings a ton of baggage. Lock up the co-eds. Also, how long would Meyer coach before he was having a medical episode because of stress? What if he can’t adapt to this new NIL era? He is one of the best coaches of the last 50 years and an absolute proven winner. If national championships are the goal, you could certainly make the argument that Meyer is the best at doing that. I just don’t know if I would want to constantly hold my nose while cheering on my team. Another factor is that he seems to love his TV gig. He left once, but that was to take a shot at the NFL.
  • Mike Elko- He hasn’t t really proven anything yet, although he seems to be on his way at Texas A&M. It is hard to see anyone out paying The Aggies and their oil barons.
  • Curt Cignetti- I am sure his agent’s phone has rung already. He would be an obvious choice. Think what he could do with Penn State talent. I keep reading that Indiana has an influx of cash for football and would probably give Cignetti the moon to keep him in Bloomington. Something tells me that Cignetti likes being able to shove little ‘ol Indiana down The big boy’s throats. He is 64, which is just a bit older than I would want to go, but not a deal breaker by any means.

I know with my hot streak of predictions you are all on pins and needles to see who I think gets the job. Jay Paterno is probably out. Trent Dilfer just got fired, but there probably Isn’t much interest there. They could try to pry Ryan Day away from Ohio State so they don’t have to lose to him anymore.

There is no doubt in my mind that Kraft will kick the tires on a lot of names, some I mentioned and some I didn’t mention. Urban probably gets a call. Cignetti probably gets a call. Kiffin probably gets a call. As I said, a lot of people may get a call.

Only one call will matter. A call between friends. Pat Kraft hired Matt Rhule at Temple. Temple has finished the season in the top 25 twice in school history. Both times Matt Rhule was the head coach. Rhule went to Baylor where the Bears finished his last season ranked 7 in the CFP poll. Only one time in school history did they finish higher. Rhule currently has Nebraska trending in the right direction. Despite saying the right things, I can’t imagine Rhule is married to Nebraska. That becomes more true if his alma mater comes calling.

Rhule isn’t a sexy hire, and he probably isn’t that different from Franklin. He has never coached anywhere that has anything close to the resources Penn State has to offer. Plus, Rhule would know better than anyone what the culture and expectations are at Penn State. Let’s face it, unless you can lure Urban Meyer out of retirement there aren’t any sure things.

Only time will tell if this move was worth the extra 50 mill Penn State spent.

The End

It has been a whirlwind nine months for Penn State football. Essentially, they were a play away from going to the national championship game last January. A senior laden roster full of talent was coming back. Then the bottom fell out with two horrible losses following a bitterly disappointing loss to Oregon. Just like that Pat Kraft pulled the plug on James Franklin.

I guess this is the new era in which we find ourselves. You can go to the semifinals one year and be unemployed the next. Remember, Ryan Day may have been in trouble if he didn’t make the playoff run to win a national championship last year.

I was never a fan of Franklin. His childish antics with fans and always wanting to put on a show rubbed me the wrong way. Still, as a human with empathy I feel bad for the crazy stuff that was apparently said to him at games and online. By all accounts Franklin was a good man of whom every player had great things to say.

It was a move that was going to happen now or later. It was inevitable. I would argue it is a good thing for both parties. I will end by posting one of the best player tributes to their coach from a former player who also understands the move. I think this sums up the whole deal.

 


Tweet of the Week

Worry not about James Franklin. He should be able to eke by the next six years.

 


The Weekly Shiny Penny

Last week versus Michigan, USC lost their top two running backs to injury. The third back was ruled out before the game. The Trojans were left with a walk on as the only back available. King Miller. Well, after Saturday the Trojans should crown him with a scholarship.

 


A Penny For My Final Thought…

USC travels to South Bend this Saturday to take on arch rival Notre Dame.

Playoff implications are large for both teams. USC can afford one more loss, but with a trip to Oregon looming along with a trip to Nebraska and a rejuvenated UCLA a win Saturday could give the Trojans some cushion. As for the Irish, one more loss ends their playoff hopes. It would leave Notre Dame with three losses and no good wins.

It is fun to see the game means something for both teams.

The bigger question is whether Saturday will be the final matchup of these two iconic teams.

This is the last game between these two teams on their current contract. It appears both schools are on board with the continuation of the series. USC tried to cut a deal with Netflix to televise the game as a one off. The Big Ten and TV networks quickly stepped in to put the kibosh on this idea.

USC and Notre Dame have been playing for 99 years. It would be a shame to not have this game on the schedule. It would be really bad for college football. We have next to no intersectional games these days, so why wipe out one of the best of all time?

I hope the powers that be can come up with a new contract. USC and Notre Dame is college football. We’ve lost so much over the past decade. Let’s not make tradition one of those losses.

Just my two cents…