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Franklin Fired at PSU

DMoney said:
It's not just the mass pedophilia scandal. Penn State was a dead program. Franklin finished Top 10 five times in the past ten years. In the 20 years before he was hired, Penn State only had five Top 10 finishes. And then they got hit with the worst scandal in sports history.

Franklin saved them.
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I just don’t understand how anyone contends that he’s a bad coach. If he’s bad, then who is good? The idea that there are only 2-3 good coaches is insane. There is no basis, for example, to assert, as many on here have, that Mario is a good coach while Franklin is a bad one. None. And I think Mario is a top 5 head coach.
 
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DC3 said:
IU is a better job than PSU right now. Cignetti gets everything he wants plus major boosters to help fund NIL.
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I hear that often but I don't understand how. With ND still in state and relevant plus the fact PSU has a better FB prestige in general I just don't see it honestly. I think PSU is the better gig and Cignetti may put them over. More pressure though. 10-2 is fine at IU but at PSU may get you $#!t canned after a while. Bloomington is a very underrated college town though.
 
AUcane said:
I didn't think people were putting this guy in legendary status. The reality is that he took over a program that was absolutely dead coming off the biggest scandal in CFB history and managed to win 11 games in his first 6 on 3 different occasions. No too shabby. Prior to this year, the team has been a double digit winning team the past several years. Is he the best coach in CFB? No, but to win like he did at PSU and at Vandy is pretty **** good.
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Bill O'Brien would like to have a word with you.
He coached the two seasons immediately following the Sandusky story. He was 15-9 combined, which is a .625 winning percentage. Franklin left with a 104-45 record, good for .698. Franlin's term had marginally better results.

The legend comment was certainly tongue in cheek. I'm not here to cape for Empy; simply pointing out what I thought was fairly obvious.

Now for the part where we get real. The folks who are bashing Franklin are doing so because they hate Penn State (understandable) or they realize that James Franklin sucked in big games or both.
In 12 seasons for Franklin.....

3 ended 7-6
1 ended 4-5
1 ended 3-3
5 of 12 mid-losing seasons falls into the UNACCEPTABLE category by CiS standards. James Franklin's record against ranked opponents at Penn State is 15-28. Specifically, his record against top-10 teams is 4-21, and he is 1-18 against top-10 Big Ten teams. For perspective, Mario is 12-18 (career) against AP Top 25 teams. Six of the 18 losses were at FIU.

To put it into even more CiS terms, you would be considered a Franklin slurper and I would be a Franklin mope.
 
DMoney said:
It's not just the mass pedophilia scandal. Penn State was a dead program. Franklin finished Top 10 five times in the past ten years. In the 20 years before he was hired, Penn State only had five Top 10 finishes. And then they got hit with the worst scandal in sports history.

Franklin saved them.
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Bill O'Brien doesn't count? Remember him? The guy who coached Penn state for the two years immediately following the disimssal of Paterno.

Or how about the B1G? Or Mark Emmert and the NCAA as a whole who gave Penn State a mild slap on the wrist? The investigation and punishmnet handed out by the NCAA was a complete and utter joke. 5 years of probation and 4 year bowl ban, that was later reduced to two. Why? Because the brand of Penn State meant more to the NCAA and the State of Pennsylvania than the rear ends of the disadvantaged youths that Sandusky preyed upon....under the protection of the program. Read that sentence again - it's exactly why people still carry on a hatred for that place. Franklin didn't save them. The ballless NCAA did.

Respectfully submitted

- BDDFC
 
I was listening to McShay's podcast today. He says that sources he has close to Indiana are telling him that Cignetti will not leave for the PSU job.

Whoever follows Franklin will not be given years to "rebuild" - the feeling is the structure, culture and talent is there.
It will certainly be curious to see how many guys hit the portal - it opens after the new coach hire is made. It also seems like a decent number of their 2026 commits are opening up their recruitments this week.
 
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Hoyacane1620 said:
I was listening to McShay's podcast today. He says that sources he has close to Indiana are telling him that Cignetti will not leave for the PSU job.

Whoever follows Franklin will not be given years to "rebuild" - the feeling is the structure, culture and talent is there.
It will certainly be curious to see how many guys hit the portal - it opens after the new coach hire is made. It also seems like a decent number of their 2026 commits are opening up their recruitments this week.
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If it's not Cignetti, it might get ugly. They can't pay 50 million dollars in buyout money just to get Matt Campbell or Matt Rhule - who are marginal improvements at best.
 
ZuCrew said:
I hear that often but I don't understand how. With ND still in state and relevant plus the fact PSU has a better FB prestige in general I just don't see it honestly. I think PSU is the better gig and Cignetti may put them over. More pressure though. 10-2 is fine at IU but at PSU may get you $#!t canned after a while. Bloomington is a very underrated college town though.
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To go through your points and counter:

presteige of the 40s-90’s really doesn’t mean anything to kids these days. Only old heads . NIL is king now.
Cignetti has the 2nd biggest staff pool in the BIG behind OSU at over 10 million.
Cignetti in his 2 years at IU has more top 10 wins than Franklin had during his entire time at PSU
PSU is losing everyone next year and Flanklin can’t recruit a develop QBs or WRs to save his life. Cupboard will be near empty for the next guy- will be interesting to see the new hire attacks this.
IF/When PSU ***** up this hire(which they probably will if they got Rhule) IU can easily battle for top 4 in the BIG each year which they have shown the last 2 years.
Bloomington is 10000 times better than State College

Personally I’d go after Eli Drinkowitz or Matt Campbell if I was them. A wildcard pick would be Bills OC Joe Brady if they go for a coordinator
 
Brickell said:
If it's not Cignetti, it might get ugly. They can't pay 50 million dollars in buyout money just to get Matt Campbell or Matt Rhule - who are marginal improvements at best.
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McShay talked about the buyout number too. He said his sources are telling him the number is closer to $100 million after all the buyouts and payment to a new coach

The two coordinators will be owed a total of roughly $10 Million between the two of them
 
dycane said:
I just don’t understand how anyone contends that he’s a bad coach. If he’s bad, then who is good? The idea that there are only 2-3 good coaches is insane. There is no basis, for example, to assert, as many on here have, that Mario is a good coach while Franklin is a bad one. None. And I think Mario is a top 5 head coach.
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He’s not a bad coach, he’s a very good coach, but he’s not a championship coach. Very few are but clearly PSU wants to win a title and that’s what they’re shooting for here. If they weren’t, they would’ve never fired him.
 
ZuCrew said:
I hear that often but I don't understand how. With ND still in state and relevant plus the fact PSU has a better FB prestige in general I just don't see it honestly. I think PSU is the better gig and Cignetti may put them over. More pressure though. 10-2 is fine at IU but at PSU may get you $#!t canned after a while. Bloomington is a very underrated college town though.
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It’s not a better job, that’s just people talking to talk. Penn State is the better job and that’s a fact.
 
I saw some posts today regarding comments made by a few senior players. ONe was from their Center. He was asked how morale was on the team. He said that they all felt like they had let him down by not playing good enough to win. Felt it was their fault he lost his job..

Pretty normal, I think, for kids to feel this way in this situation. Imagine how they would feel if Franklin was replaced by Rhule, a guy who hasn't won anything, hasn't done nearly what their former coach did and he was fired..... I think I'd find that hard to understand....
 
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NicKane said:
He’s not a bad coach, he’s a very good coach, but he’s not a championship coach. Very few are but clearly PSU wants to win a title and that’s what they’re shooting for here. If they weren’t, they would’ve never fired him.
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Firing Franklin, because the goal is to win a championship doesn't make sense to me after seeing the names tied to the opening.

Franklin made the playoff and won two games last year. No one on their radar has that resume. Cignetti, who is a great coach, doesn't. Matt Rhule, Matt Campbell, or Manny Diaz - lol. Franklin lead them to the best season they've had in 20-30 years, and he was fired 10 months later. Their program has challenged for the title once a decade over the last 40 years (when they're not on probation for covering up their rape-o Defensive Coordinator's pedophilia). That's what Franklin did too.

I think they fired him when they did, because they had spent a bajillon dollars in the off-season on coordinators and transfer portal players, and they were out of playoff contention after 6 games. With how large the tiered playoff payouts are, and with the move by conferences to financially reward terms based on performance, this will likely keep happening at big-spending P4 (especially P2) schools.

Franklin also wasn't part of the JoePa cult, and those lunatics in Happy Valley cannot be happy that they have had to spend the better part of the last 15 years acting as though their program's history didn't exist. I think they hire Rhule. Good luck to their AD trying to explain how Rhule gives them a better chance to win a championship than Franklin did.
 
NicKane said:
He’s not a bad coach, he’s a very good coach, but he’s not a championship coach. Very few are but clearly PSU wants to win a title and that’s what they’re shooting for here. If they weren’t, they would’ve never fired him.
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He’s not a championship coach because he hasn’t won one yet? Who the **** would’ve won a ‘ship there on the heels of Sandusky, during a pre-NIL period where the SEC and OSU were buying all the players? He’s had PSU close in the new era of football, maybe just a QB away.

Is Jimbo a better coach, or Larry Coker for that matter, because they won a championship?

I don’t get what separates a championship coach from otherwise very good coaches, I guess.
 
I’ve thought this over some more and I’ve come to the conclusion that, if Penn State is serious about winning a championship, then they need to bring in a proven championship-winning head coach. The perfect candidate is out there and he just might be willing to listen to their offer.




I just hope they can find a way to pry him away from Chapel Hill, NC.
 
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