James Franklin is Now a Joke
Pressure and questions mount for the beleaguered Penn State head coach
Penn State head coach James Franklin has an identity problem.
Everyone knows who he is. Penn State fans, other college football fans, opposing coaches. They know exactly who, or what, James Franklin is at this point in his career.
The problem is, Franklin himself has not realized it yet.
Thus the exchange we all saw posted on social media Saturday afternoon1 following another loss to Ohio State, 20-13, in which the Nittany Lions held a 10-point lead early in the first quarter, thanks to a pick-6 by the defense, but failed to score a touchdown on offense, which included two possessions inside the 5-yard-line that resulted in a total of 0 points.
As he exited the playing field toward the tunnel, two fans who resembled Scut Farkus and Grover Dill from A Christmas Story, are ranting and raving at Franklin. He stops and acknowledges them.
"If you're going to be man enough to talk, what's your name?"
You may be asking yourself why a college football coach making millions of dollars per season is worried about some naysayer’s name following another sadly predictable loss2 to Ohio State?
What does it matter? Why are you concerned about his name? If he gave Franklin his name, was he going to actually engage him in a shouting match or discuss Red Zone philosophies?
It might not hurt, but the point is, Franklin lowered himself to the level of an angry young fan spouting off at the head coach. Who does that?
As Franklin moved through the bowels of Beaver Stadium following the incident, a chant, although not the familiar, “We are!” rang out. Instead, it was, “Fire Franklin!”
It seems Franklin has officially worn out his welcome in Happy Valley.
A Good (but not Very Good) History
Saturday’s loss to Ohio State was Franklin’s eighth in a row. It moves his all-time record against the Buckeyes to 1-9. His only win was off a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown. A freak play. A play of desperation that just happened to smile fortune on Franklin and the Nittany Lions.
Franklin’s combined record against Ohio State and Michigan, the two big programs in the Big Ten, is 4-16. Against Top 5 ranked teams, he is 1-13. Against Top 10 opponents, 3-17.
Franklin has made excuses. He’s hired and fired coordinators, willing to throw them under the bus for his team’s continued failures. Always with a promise to look at ways to improve.
Andy Kotelnicki, the new offensive coordinator from Kansas, was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle for this year’s team. He was supposed to help produce the big plays that the offense embarrassingly lacked last season in defeats to Ohio State and Michigan.
At times this season, the offense has looked good.
On Saturday, as I already mentioned, it failed to score a touchdown.
The only constant in all of these losses has been Franklin.
There’s no more questions about sample size, excuses about sanctions, or needing his own players. The fact is, James Franklin can’t beat teams in maize and blue, or scarlet and grey, and he sure as hell can’t win a big game.
Period. Full stop.
What to Do?
So now the real question for Penn State, it’s board of trustees, and athletic director, Dr. Patrick Kraft is, what to do about it?
James Franklin is a good coach. His record of 95-40 is quite respectable. He wins nearly 66-percent of his games (60-33) in the Big Ten. His team has finished in the Top 10 four out of the last eight seasons.
But as long as Franklin remains the head coach, Penn State can forget about ever winning another Big Ten title3, and will never win a national championship.
On Saturday, more than 111,000 fans piled into Beaver Stadium, along with Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN’s College Gameday. Between parking, concessions, and merchandise, I’m sure Penn State profited nicely.
But Penn State fans are already hawking parking passes on Facebook for the remainder of this season’s home games. They’re not coming back. After 10 seasons of watching the same pattern of undefeated teams falling to Michigan and/or Ohio State, will they choose to come back?
At what point does retaining Franklin lead to diminishing returns as it pertains to home game weekends and the program as a whole? And what is the risk of separating from Franklin and bringing in a new coach with a new regime, and can they guarantee 11-2 and 10-3 seasons as regularly as Franklin has this last decade?
The Shadow Knows
Penn State, and its fan base, was spoiled by Joe Paterno, who coached the team to a high level (409-136-3), including 2 national championships4, over his 46-year head coaching career.
Penn State is not used to shopping for head coaches. I believe it’s why the school has been reluctant to fire Franklin. In fact, they’ve tripped over themselves to sign him to contract extensions.
In 2016, halfway through his initial six-year contract, the school signed him to a six-year extension.
After the 2019 season, an 11-2 season, the board of trustees announced another contract extension. This after it became well known that Franklin had received interest from schools such as Southern California and Florida St.
In 2021, Penn State signed Franklin, whose become known as a serial flirter, to a new 10-year contract extension with a base salary of $7.5 million, a $500,000 annual retention bonus, and a $1 million life insurance policy.
If Penn State were to fire Franklin after December 1st, the school would owe him a whopping $56,666,667 due to his contractual buyout. If Franklin were to choose to leave, his buyout is $2 million.
Let’s first acknowledge that whoever negotiated this contract for Penn State did an absolutely awful job. As we see, the school is now hamstrung by this deal if it hopes to move on from Franklin. Meanwhile, the coach could up and leave for a pittance that would gladly be fronted by his new school.
A Game of Chicken
So who blinks first?
I don’t think the Board of Trustees is willing to pay Franklin to go away. Fifty-six million is a big number, and Penn State still feels the lingering impact from the payouts for the Jerry Sandusky scandal that rocked the institution and brought the football program to its knees.
Franklin has the Lion by the tail, if you will, but as we saw on Saturday, he is clearly feeling the pressure and may be willing to negotiate a smaller buyout in order to move on from Penn State.
There’s no need for this not to be an amicable separation. I’m thinking a statement similar to the “conscious uncoupling” brought to us by Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay’s Chris Martin back in the day.
Penn State can move on with the hope of finding a new coach with a national championship ceiling, while Franklin can leave behind the increasing pressure of trying to beat Michigan and Ohio State and a growing dissension among the Penn State faithful, including Farkus and Dill.
But as people point out, who is the replacement?
Are Urban Meyer and Nick Saban available? Probably not. Could Bill O’Brien be talked into coming back to Happy Valley? Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule is a Penn State grad and former coach. I don’t know if that’s an improvement.
Could Curt Cignetti be convinced to leave Indiana? I’ve Googled him. All he does is win.
Is the next Curt Cignetti lurking somewhere out there?
Rear View Mirror
At the beginning of ESPN’s College Gameday on Saturday, Pat McAfee shared a story about attending a kicking camp at Penn State as a high school student. He was told he “wasn’t Penn State material.”
McAfee and his father got in their car and put Happy Valley in their rear view mirror. McAfee said this weekend was the first time in 20 years he’d come back to Penn State.
Like McAfee, James Franklin might not be Penn State material.
Like McAfee, James Franklin might be best served by putting Penn State in his rear view mirror.
No, not Jason Kelce smashing what appeared to be a Penn State student’s cell phone.
If you listened to this week’s episode of Tailgators Setup podcast, you’d have heard me correctly predict Penn State would lose to Ohio State.
Franklin won a Big Ten championship in 2016.
The Nittany Lions are officially recognized as national champions for the 1982 and 1986 seasons. I would argue they should have shared a third national championship in 1994, with a team that went undefeated.
It’s a dangerous time for Penn State. I’m not sure where they go. It can take a long time to build a program and it can been undone very very quickly. See State, Michigan. Get the next hire right and you’re back there with Ohio state and Oregon. Get it wrong and you’re the new Nebraska.