MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
James Franklin was 4-21 against Top 25 teams and won “only” one Big Ten title in his time as the Penn State head football coach.
It can honestly be said he earned the derisive nickname of “Big Game James,” but it cannot be denied that he took a program that was at an all-time low (you do remember Jerry Sandusky) and within three years turned it back into a perennial top 10 program.
He was asked on ESPN College Gameday on Saturday morning just a few days after being fired as the Penn State head coach when he would start to get the ball rolling on pursuing his next coaching job, and he said he didn’t yet know. When in fact, the ball had already been put into play when he agreed to do the interview, which was a masterclass in PR with plenty of help coming from the panel members who asked him fluff questions.
Franklin said he “doesn’t understand” why he was fired. Nick Saban said the firing was “unfair.” Pat McAfee sucked up and cracked unfunny quips.
Messaging and image protection – it’s what James Franklin does best, because it’s how he gets great jobs and, in turn, great players. James Franklin has begun the process of remarketing his brand, and his brand is him. He will coach again, likely soon, and he will be successful.
Is it unfair that Penn State fired James Franklin? It would seem so.
Is it unfair that Franklin used his leverage to milk Penn State and its donors repeatedly for more money and resources, including a $3 million defensive coordinator hire? He is said to have exceeded the unlimited expense account and still came up woefully short in Penn State’s biggest games.
Sure. Both things can be true at the same time.
It is the merciless way of the modern world for college sports, although a $49 million buyout tends to buy a guy a little mercy.
Between the buyout and the six seasons of double-digit victories, seven New Year’s Day bowls and one Big Ten title, it seems Franklin would have been one of the most secure coaches in the country during another time. Just not during this time.
The loss to Oregon only brought more weight to the Big Game moniker, but when Penn State lost to consecutive 20-point underdogs, UCLA and Northwestern, which is believed to be a first in college football, that was all she wrote.
Franklin joined Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Arkansas’ Sam Pittman and Oregon State’s Trent Bray on the fired coaches list for this season alone, with angry boosters said to be circling the wagons on LSU’s Brian Kelly and Southern Cal’s Lincoln Riley.
Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said the school will shoot for the stars to secure the best possible coach they can to succeed Franklin, with Nebraska’s Matt Ruhle, a Penn State alum and friend of Kraft’s, having already been frequently mentioned. That’s because Penn State sees itself among the handful of schools that should always compete for playoff bids and national championships, even if it hasn’t won one of those since 1986.
Yet in this day of college sports with donor dollars, the transfer portal (free agency) and the right coach, schools like Indiana, Texas Tech and SMU can come out of nowhere to be in the playoff picture – and just as easily fall off the face of the world. And that goes front and center for any head coach no matter what his name is.
Going back to his days at Maryland when he was the head coach in waiting, James Franklin has never been one of my personal favorites, yet I still find it hard to wrap my brain around a head coach getting fired after 12 years of success because of three disastrous weeks.
There just has to be more to this than meets the eye and than what Kraft and Franklin are saying. There was a report that Adidas was behind the firing and that they would be paying the buyout.
Plain and simply, maybe they all just didn’t like each other, and with all of the national championship aspirations that the school and the donors poured money into having been long torpedoed, maybe they figured why put up with this misery when there’s a buyout and we have the dough to cover it?
Who will ever know? In this day and age of college/professional athletics no one is ever likely to know.
Just file it under a personnel matter.
A Big Game personnel matter.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT