Franklin “Had to Go…” Here’s Why We Needed Him to Stay
- Thread starter o_PSUALREADYKNOW
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I know. The back up quarterback and the coach that has never coached your team are always the best. Ever ponder why that is? Remember when Campbell was a great coach? Right up till halftime vs. Wisky. Good times.
Absolutely, List ten who are clearly better.....
Clearly Better
1. Ryan Day
2. Kirby Smart
3. Curt Cignetti
Most Likely Better
4. Marcus Freeman
5. Lane Kifffin
6. Mario Cristobal
7. Dan Lanning????
Coin Flip
8. Steve Sark
9. James Franklin
10. Kalen Debor ??
Slightly lower than James
11. Kyle Whittingham?????
Not enough to judge.... Bob Chesney
I thought the same thing as you until I started to think it through. Its crazy when you think about it. There are probably 5 coaches that were absolutely better than James. And not a single one of them was coming here. Then there was another 5 that would have been a lateral move for Penn state and none of them were coming here. So we were left with nothing but downgrades, or hail Mary candidates.
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Well, I hate to break it to you but its true. Although, before the season most national pundits had him around 13, he has defintely jumped some of those guys now.
List ten who are clearly better.....
Clearly Better
1. Ryan Day
2. Kirby Smart
3. Curt Cignetti
Most Likely Better
4. Marcus Freeman
5. Lane Kifffin
6. Mario Cristobal
7. Dan Lanning????
Coin Flip
8. Steve Sark
9. James Franklin
10. Kalen Debor ??
Slightly lower than James
11. Kyle Whittingham?????
Not enough to judge.... Bob Chesney
I thought the same thing as you until I started to think it through. Its crazy when you think about it. There are probably 5 coaches that were absolutely better than James. And not a single one of them was coming here. Then there was another 5 that would have been a lateral move for Penn state and none of them were coming here. So we were left with nothing but downgrades, or hail Mary candidates.
I don't even know where to start with this...
You do deserve Franklin was just available for any program to sign and his best offer was Va Tech, right?
Your better coaches (Day, Smart, Cignetti, Freeman, Kiffin, Critsobal and Lanning) are obviously. Dabo should be fired but you're using resume with Franklin with means Dabo has to be ahead of him. Sark and Franklin are comparable. Whittingham is clearly better even with the mess he stepped into at Michigan with Underwood. I think DeBoer is safely ahead of him. Drinkwitz is better (Beau threw him off for a year). Elko is better despite this year. Do we have to say Riley is better since he has a title? Sitake is better.
We can get into a long debate with guys like Chensey, Brohm, Lashlee, Heupel, & McGuire before we even get into younger guys. Or guys like Ferentz. Kraft would say MC is better--which we'll find out over the next 30 games or so.
I understand the frustration with how this season is going but we've already seen Franklin be Franklin at Va Tech and they've yet to play a good team. I don't understand how anyone could claim he's a top 10 coach when he's wasn't sought after. I think even James knows he's best suited for the ACC and not the competition that exists in the SEC or Big Ten with parity taking over.
Okay so we agree there are 7 clearly better, and actually Lanning and Kiffin could be debated. The other guys you listed there is no actual production that backs it up, you are just hoping they are better. Drink what has he won? Whittingham not even close?
Anyway you cut it... you and I agree and the national media agrees... James would be anywhere from as high as 7 to as low as 13.
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They're not and you're ignoring the other I said are better. Sitake, Drinkwitz Whittingham & DeBoer push him out of the top 10--then I have another 5-10 before him. You want to say top 20-25 that's cool. If a consensus top 10 was free for anyone to hire you'd have programs firing a guy to hire him. Like if DeBoer is fired teams are going to be more than happy to buyout their guy to hire him.
I'm not trying to start a fight I just hope that everyone can be objective. And I admit, I am wrong more often than not, lol But, anyone can just list coaches names and claim they are better. Heck, I could come up with 50 names and "say" they are better. But lets look objectively. Your claim is that Sitake, Drink, Whittingham, Deboer are clearly better than James and that those names push him out of the top 10. Here are those coaches resumes over the last five years. With all do respect your claim is simply not true. Drink, Whittingham, and Sitake are objectively worse on virtually every metric (DeBoer is clearly the best of the group). Again, James is a top 7-10 coach, objectively.
- 51- 13 -------Finished ranked 4 out of 5 years -----final rank in those years 2,8,9,17 (Played in the SEC/Big 10) Kalen Deboer
- 43-13 ------ Finished ranked 3 out of 5 years ------final rank in those years 5, 7 and 13 (Played in Big 10) James Franklin
- 42-17 -----Finished ranked 2 out of 5 years -----final rank in those years 11,13 (Played in Big 12) Kilane Sitake
- 37- 21 ------Finished ranked 2 out of 5 years ----final in rank in those years 10, 14 (Played in Big 12) Kyle Whittingham
- 40- 19 -------Finished ranked 2 out of 5 years------final rank in those years 8,22 (Played in SEC) Eli Drinkwitz
There is no argument of whether or not Franklin is a good coach he is and that has never been my argument for whether or not he should have been fired.
Now factor in where they were and where the program started when they got there. I don't believe for a second any program is taking Franklin over any of those guys other than maybe Whittingham because of his age.
>>>>>>BGJ.He is better than Campbell.
Ironic that nobody listed Campbell in their top 10.
Who in the top 10 would be interested in psu?
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Haha. Everyone should be “objective” to your specifically set 5 year criteria. Don’t consider a whole career (obviously Dabo) and don’t consider what is currently happening this season (any of the many coaches who have their team playing better than VT).
People like you and Marshall are why I wish PSU had waited until the end of last season to fire Franklin. He would have picked up numerous extra L’s on his record that he deserved.
Like Franklin...most would likely have Campbell around the top 20. Some higher and some lower.
He could have continued to receive the great expression of love from the fans for all of those losses, like they did at the end of the NW game.
Would you like me to post winning percentages for their careers?
Considering JF coached in the SEC at Vandy and PSU coming out of sanctions in the Big 10……versus little time ball in the Big 12.
By what metric can CMC even lace JF’s shoes?
I don't really give a hoot, but it's funny to see your panties in a bunch.
There's no metric. Why do you think BGJ got the bums rush? Because he stunk and failed the plot of the BoT. Franklin was a clown.
nor will Matt Campbell and about 55 current P4 coaches. Nor will you ever marry a supermodel.
Career record top 25 finishes top 10 finishes bowl record college playoff record
Campbell 110-74 2 1 5-5 0-0
Franklin 134-62 9 5 6-6 2-1
The fans aren't done with Campbell yet.
This is the problem. Losers that are happy with our current situation. What fans we have to support rebuilding the program. LOL
If I recall…Rojas got injured, Singleton was AWFUL, we traveled across the country, AFTER a devastating loss, Iamalevea had a career day, and UCLA had a few lucky bounces. And the week after…we struggled again but should have/could have won. To throw 11 years of a program building and success out of the sanctions because things didn’t go our way is batshit crazy.
If any one of the posters on this board as a football coach OR any strata of professional industry was fired after what Franklin did for the program, I would fight for you too and say it’s unfair. I’m shocked some of you so staunchly support the dismissal-you show the kind of person you are deep down. What if you had been the coach? Not that fair right?
How many National Titles did Joe win in 40 plus years at Penn State?
Over the past decade we have had dozens of NFL caliber players on the roster.
Why are they all gone?
Where are they going to come from next year?
Of the year after?
is Matt Campbell gonna “frick” and “oh shucks” us back to being a top 3 team in (The Big 10?)
Do you think Canpbell’s coaching staff and tree aligns with better results moving forward?
Is there substantive proof PSU will commit to spending as much as the top 5 programs?
Who’s going to be our starting QB next year?
I can’t believe some of you would rather have this…and/or the prospects of what “this” could mean and the up hill battle required verse what we already had before. I felt like things were pretty good-I was loving being a PSU fan. Believe it or not, not beating OSU every year wasn’t what define my fandom as a PSU lover because I knew very clearly we need intended to be better than OSU. That’s what was the difference…we were success with honor. They were just success.
So, we HAD success with honor.
Now thanks to Matt we have honor…which is nice but it isn’t going to win games and no-it’s not what parents care about first and foremost on recruiting visits in 2026.
Don’t ever apologize for standing up for what’s right. Not enough people did that for JoePa either. Which is supremely ironic and would tickle me if it wasn’t so frustrating to realize. Thanks for the factual information which gives knowledge that helps formulate decisions and understand context. Based on this shared information, I think your point seems to be robustly accurate.
100% fair
Just like James knew he was gone the moment he lost to Northwestern I would have known and accept it.
I was given everything I asked for then completely blew the opportunity
We would have beat Iowa and Indiana at least…the only extra L’s now are your posts.
No one cares, except trolls and Imbeciles.
I know exactly what we had with Franklin. A terrible in-game coach that shuffled offensive and defensive coaches hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. He recruited OK, but honestly he didn't hit it out of the ballpark. He was never able to maximize the talent he had available to him evidenced by the fact that he produced good NFL talent but they were always better as pros than they were during their time at PSU. He could never win a game where the opposing team had equal or better-quality talent. His biggest concern was always his ego. He just loved to run up the score on lesser quality opponents especially when he had a grudge against their coach. He acted like a jackass to reporters and fans who grew sick of his show.
There were a lot of job openings last year. But he ended up at Virginia Tech. Not Michigan, LSU, Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, UCLA or Utah.
Certainly the hiring of Campbell could have been handled much better but we made the right decision firing Franklin and in the long run we're going to be much better for it.
Do coaches lose points for being better recruiters? Do you do that with other coaches or just franklin?
Does Campbell get extra credit for being an inferior rFranklin?
Has the team improved?
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