This was a week when the unexpected happened. For the most part.
With Northwestern’s 22-21 win in State College over Penn State, on the heels of the Nittany Lions’ loss to an underperforming UCLA team in the Rose Bowl, PSU fired football head coach James Franklin. It was surprising that it was during the season—the home loss to Oregon didn’t help either, further demonstrating that Franklin’s teams simply cannot win against top flight competition in the Big Ten.
Having visited the Penn State campus many times while my daughter attended school there, it was evident that Penn State took pride in its athletics. Not all teams were successful—men’s and women’s basketball and baseball come to mind. But soccer, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling thrived there.
Still, the big, driving force at PSU was football. With a stadium currently undergoing a massive remodeling to comfortably seat over 100,000 rabid fans, game days in Happy Valley were an event. The big bucks which were poured into the biggest revenue sport demanded excellence on the field and no repeat of the scandals which plagued iconic coach Joe Paterno’s last days.
Franklin came from Vanderbilt, where he managed to resurrect a dormant Commodores program into a winning one against the highest caliber of SEC teams. He didn’t win a SEC crown during his tenure in Nashville, but he seemed to be an up and coming coach who knew how to develop a winning culture.
So Penn State grabbed him over 12 years ago with the goal of his leading the Nittany Lions not just to national prominence, but to win the National Championship. The administration gave him all that it could by way of top-notch facilities. The necessary N-I-L money was available to recruit the highest level of student-athlete. The fact that PSU was in the middle of Pennsylvania was overcome by the ability to play in one of the best leagues, if not the best one in the Big Ten.
Franklin’s teams did well enough to earn nice end-of-the season bowl game trips. But he failed miserably against Ohio State and Michigan and even Oregon. That wasn’t good enough for those who poured money into the program and expected especially this team to be a national title contender by its pre-season ranking in the top 3.
Simply beating Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue et.al. wasn’t sufficient. The repeated failures began to put Franklin on the hot seat. Losing to Oregon may not have been very good. But defeats from the bottom feeders in the league were his death knell as the head coach of PSU Football.
Thus the administration pulled the trigger and jettisoned Franklin. Many pundits were astonished, given the fact that Franklin had a very large buyout clause which kicked in with his departure. Whether it was in-season or at the end of the 2025 campaign didn’t matter. (There is some mitigation here—Franklin has to actively look for employment as a head coach to offset some of the money PSU owes him for his firing)
I never liked Franklin, going back to his days at Vandy. I thought his brash, arrogant manner of speaking to the media and fans was condescending. His internal drive to win didn’t match his external expressions.
Then again, he is like a whole lot of head coaches in football and basketball. Full of bravado and short on talent—theirs along with the players recruited.
James Franklin will arise again on the college football scene. Too many job openings occur yearly. There will be a spot for him at some program which believes Franklin has the right capacity to win. Many ex-coaches with fairly good resumes who have not satisfied the alumni or administration in their last job find new and purposeful employment in win-starved environments.
Could it be a school which felt it should be playoff bound yearly? Perhaps. Or might it be a Vanderbilt-like college which wants to be in the conversation with the big boys. Look at the current Top 25 which includes names like Indiana, Mississippi, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Virginia, South Florida, Memphis, Utah, Cincinnati and Nebraska—teams not normally associated with the rankings and are having renaissances. Might it be Arkansas, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Stanford—big names already in search of a new head man? There certainly will be more schools firing the current guy in the hopes of landing someone of Franklin’s stature. And after the dust settles, does he have to take a TV job for a year or move down a notch to re-establish his reputation?
As for Penn State, where do they go now that they have fired Franklin? Would they lure ex-coach Bill O’Brien, who had to deal with the aftermath of the Paterno mess, back from Boston College? Indiana’s Curt Cignetti is now out of the running, having secured a lucrative extension. Matt Ruhle, the now-successful Nebraska coach has a close relationship with the PSU AD Pat Kraft; Nebraska is not somewhere to walk away from so quickly. Also mentioned are Tulane HC Jon Sumrall; Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz; Matt Campbell from Iowa State with a proven track record; and yes, going to Vanderbilt and snatching Clark Lea.
There are a whole lot of possibilities beyond the ones prominently mentioned to succeed Franklin. It might even be an assistant coach from a Power 5 school. That path worked at Georgia and Clemson, among other places.
Whatever the direction this takes, a lot of money will be thrown about to secure the next Joe Paterno in Happy Valley. Remember this—Paterno, a former Brown quarterback, was the top assistant to Rip Engle at PSU before being elevated to the top job. Maybe the interim coach might become the winner of this lottery to keep costs down.
The legacy at Penn State is based on two consensus national titles before the playoff system was instituted: 1982 and 1986. In 2026, that will be 40 years hoping for the next great team. I wish them luck—just not too much for I’d love to see Rutgers rise up and surpass PSU and others ahead of them. I just don’t think that will occur with Greg Schiano at the controls. Nor would it happen with Franklin.
And there is one other possibility. That PSU shot itself in the foot by firing Franklin and will be consigned to the wilderness of chasing unrealistic dreams for years to come.
Some other notes. First, my wife, daughter and I saw comedian Tom Segura perform at the beautiful New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark this past Wednesday night. Segura is not a household name. At least among my generation of older adults.
Yet I found his humor funny and bright, his wit and delivery were polished and savvy. He even found a way to diss Bill Belichick, the former Super Bowl champion coach in New England and now embattled at the University of North Carolina in his first foray into the collegiate ranks.
Segura is going to become a known commodity. He has the talent and ability to make a bigger splash than he already has with videos, his podcast and live performances like this one, which was sold out. Go see him if you have the opportunity and keep your eyes open for his upcoming movies and specials. You won’t be disappointed.
Now I can turn to baseball. With the Division Series in full force, I have to say that I am not surprised with the results thus far. The Los Angeles Dodgers always were a highly talented group which actually improved from last season—even if the regular season record didn’t quite measure up to people’s expectations. I was dubious about how good the Milwaukee Brewers really were and their struggles to get past the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS may have told me all I needed to know how they might fare against the reigning MLB champions. That is why LAD has a commanding 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Toronto had a brief slumber after expending much energy to dispatch the New York Yankees from the playoffs in the ALDS. Seattle’s two wins on the road have been matched by the Blue Jays bombarding the Mariners in Seattle. It is now a best 2 of 3 series; I think the Jays have the edge.
Finally, two New York Yankees went under the knife right after the team was eliminated by Toronto. Shortstop Anthony Volpe had his labrum tear from May fixed and star pitcher Carlos Rodon needed arthroscopic surgery to his left elbow to clean up some debris and a bone spur.
Both will be unavailable early in the 2026 season. That will stretch the NYY infield and starting pitching in March, April and May.
One might never have known that there was something wrong with Rodon. However, we became aware of Volpe’s injury and saw how it affected his hitting and fielding even after one, then two and then a third cortisone injection. One has to wonder what was discussed with Volpe, the Yankees brass, medical staff to keep him playing rather than opt earlier for surgery which would have placed him in line for a timely return in 2026. Moreover, with Volpe’s parents both doctors, one wonders what their thoughts and input might have been—if any. It seems like something was wrong from the outset.
Speaking of that, I am going once more to Met Life Stadium this Sunday to see the 0-6 New York Jets either reach 0-7 versus Carolina or record the team’s first win of the season. Call me a glutton for punishment. Especially after the dud in London where the team could not win a winnable game because the pass offense was horrendous.
James Franklin. PSU. Tom Segura. Baseball. Yet I am going to see NYJ play.
No comments:
Post a Comment