If coach has no interest let’s hear it. The team is unsettled, recruits are unsettled, fans are unsettled. If he is interested in USC job, tell us ! Penn State job is NOT a stepping stone !!
Coach Franklin and USC
- Thread starter Swslion
- Start date
Oh hell you’re just bored. Get on with your life and take the drama elsewhere, or at least to an existing thread.
Oh goody, another Franklin/USC thread. How do you know the team and the recruits are unsettled? Sean Clifford didn’t seem too unsettled. And it’s hard to have interest in a job that hasn’t been offered to you yet.
Of course another thread about unsubstantiated rumors will make all the difference.
Wait, is the USC job open? Why didn't someone start a thread?
No comparison la is smog central terrible air quality crazy traffic and many people living in tents all over.
State college is a beautiful area and people love CJF and you could not find a better place to raise children
State college is a beautiful area and people love CJF and you could not find a better place to raise children
But nobody that’s trying to make a list of most desirable coaching positions could use location because that all depends on the individual person. Personally I wouldn’t take a job in a big city because I don’t want to live there and I would much prefer a college town setting. But some people only want to live in a big city. It’s all a matter of personal taste.
There is no evidence that the team is "unsettled" or that recruits are "unsettled."
If you are unsettled take a double shot of Old Grand Dad.
He has a tendency to turn down jobs that aren’t offered to him…it helps recruiting.
HA…..State College has terrible traffic on certain fall Fridays and Saturdays and has 100s of students living in tents!!!!! 🤪
USC and Texas are open jobs about every other year. Where up and coming head coaches go to become position coaches again.
Disappointing that people missed the connection to this Monkees classic.
yep, but the talent within half a day's drive is insane. You could recruit on a bicycle.
... and that talent would play better without the ankle bracelets on I bet.
So, saw an online story about the USC job - and that those who are agents of coaches feel that the LSU job will come open and that may actually be more attractive to a coach than USC. Reasons were not given.
Let's not also forget that the UConn job is open - and it's tough to compete with that.
@TomMcAndrew - can these CJF to USC threads be combined?
Let's not also forget that the UConn job is open - and it's tough to compete with that.
@TomMcAndrew - can these CJF to USC threads be combined?
I've heard that too (about LSU). Also heard someone say Franklin's 'team' is so good that if an elite high school job opens someone will say there is 'mutual interest.'
That aside, found an interesting/somewhat insightful post from The Athletic's Andy Staples' Q&A:
Why does James Franklin’s name keep getting thrown out there to go to USC/leave Penn State? Is he not happy there? He is from Pennsylvania, so moving closer to home isn’t it. He has rebuilt and is building Penn State into the second-best program in the Big Ten, and one of the top schools in the country. Seems like a huge mistake to go to USC and restart.
BUT… if he would go, would Penn State immediately become the next Michigan State, Indiana, etc., or could they replace Franklin with likewise talent (thoughts on who)?
— Richie
The reason people keep mentioning Franklin’s name is that the USC job seems to be a better fit for a coach with his personality than the Penn State job. Franklin excels at salesmanship, which is necessary at USC but not so much at Penn State. USC is not Alabama, where the demand is baked in. USC has to compete in its own town with the Lakers, the Dodgers, the Rams and a multitude of other entities filling the sports universe. Pete Carroll understood this and worked to make USC cool. Franklin could do the same thing, and his experience recruiting in the SEC at Vanderbilt and against Ohio State in the Big Ten East would help USC at a time when some of the best players in Southern California are leaving to play at Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oregon.
Plus, when Franklin was at Vanderbilt, he made Nashville one of the stars of his recruiting pitch. He’d absolutely do the same with Los Angeles, and this would help make USC a cool place to play again. And from a competitive standpoint, having Oregon in the other division isn’t as rough as having Ohio State in the same division. If Franklin got the USC job and recruited and developed the way he has at Penn State, the Trojans would make the Pac-12 title game nearly every year. Plus, he’s worked in the SEC, and USC needs a coach who recruits like a good SEC head coach — because that’s what the Trojans are fighting on the recruiting trail. Bryce Young, a former USC commit who played at USC QB breeding ground Mater Dei in Santa Ana, Calif., is the starting quarterback at Alabama. Tight end Brock Bowers, the newest budding star at Georgia, is from northern California. But in the Carroll era, such a player would have given USC heavy consideration. Clemson isn’t an SEC school, but it acts like one. And its starting QB (D.J. Uiagalelei) played at St. John Bosco, which is 16 miles from USC’s campus. The Trojans need a coach who can win recruiting matchups against Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and Dabo Swinney, not just against Herm Edwards, Kyle Whittingham and Chip Kelly.
Does that mean Franklin would take the job or that USC would offer it? No. But those of us who have spent time with Franklin can envision him thriving in that job. It’s tougher to envision someone like Iowa State’s Matt Campbell enjoying the USC job because Campbell has not so far expressed any desire to swim in those particular recruiting waters. But if Franklin went to USC, Campbell could be a good fit at Penn State.
Richie shouldn’t worry about Penn State falling a level within the Big Ten if Franklin leaves. The program is built to stay relevant, and there would be no shortage of coaches willing to come to Happy Valley. I mentioned Campbell as a good fit. A run at Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell could be prudent, though as I explain below he might be difficult to uproot. Coastal Carolina’s Jamey Chadwell would need to familiarize himself with a different recruiting territory, but his shotgun-with-triple-option-principles offense could be positively devastating with the kind of talent he could recruit at Penn State. I wrote yesterday that Kentucky’s Mark Stoops has the best job in the country, but a good Big Ten program would be crazy not to at least inquire about Stoops, who might be the third- or fourth-best recruiter in Big Ten territory while working at an SEC school.
Now that we’ve filled USC and Penn State, let’s consider the possibility that Franklin takes a raise (for himself and his assistants) and stays at Penn State. Then what would USC do?
Oregon’s Mario Cristobal will get mentioned frequently for the USC job. There’s a good reason for this. He can fix USC’s two biggest problems. The recruiting issue is huge at USC, but so is the lack of development on either line of scrimmage. That damned the Trojans more than any other factor during the Clay Helton era. USC did produce some first-round offensive linemen (Austin Jackson, Alijah Vera-Tucker), but it didn’t produce any dominant offensive lines. And the Trojans haven’t produced a first-round defensive lineman since Leonard Williams in 2015.
Mario Cristobal has proved he can land top players and evaluate and develop linemen on both sides of the ball, but it makes little sense for him to leave Oregon. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Cristobal has proved at Oregon that he can land highly sought-after players, and he has proved he can evaluate and develop linemen on both sides of the ball. Even without edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux — who might be the nation’s best player — Oregon’s offensive and defensive lines pushed around a bunch of future pros at Ohio State last weekend. Undoubtedly, the leadership at USC would love someone to have the Trojans playing that way, but the catch with Cristobal is it makes little sense for him to leave Oregon for USC when he already has Oregon rolling. The programs are in the same league but in different divisions. Even if USC upgrades, Cristobal already has established Oregon as a place where elite recruits can sign and thrive. He’s still going to get his share, and that will allow him to continue to dominate the North Division, make the Pac-12 title game and compete for College Football Playoff berths.
Cincinnati’s Fickell is another coach we should assume the Trojans will consider. After all, current USC athletic director Mike Bohn hired Fickell at Cincinnati. But Fickell is different than most coaches and there is no guarantee he’d take it. Fickell has a great situation at Cincinnati. He’s recruiting above his conference level, and the Bearcats will upgrade their competition in 2023 when they enter the Big 12. Fickell also has six children — including one on Cincinnati’s football team — so that’s a lot to uproot. Plus, he’s been the head coach at Ohio State for a season (2011). So Fickell understands the pressure of a job where massive success is a baseline expectation. I’ve written this here before, but it bears repeating. It’s tough to imagine Fickell moving unless it’s a perfect situation for him, and that means programs like Ohio State or Notre Dame.
Florida’s Dan Mullen is another guy who is getting results at a quality job, but at the very least his agent Jimmy Sexton should gauge USC’s interest. At worst, this might get Mullen another raise in Gainesville. But like Franklin, Mullen might want to consider the path to a championship — which has grown considerably more difficult for Florida’s coach with Smart at Georgia. The catch here is that, as I pointed out above, Mullen still would find himself recruiting against Saban, Smart and Swinney. Probably the only criticism of Mullen’s otherwise successful tenure at Florida is that he hasn’t been able to stock his roster like those coaches have. The USC coach has to be able to do that to get the desired results, so the recruiting really doesn’t get any easier.
The other track USC could take is to hire a head coach from the NFL. That worked very well when it was Carroll, though when Carroll was actually hired no one was particularly excited. Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy has yet to get a head-coaching job in the NFL. Would the former Colorado star — and former Buffaloes offensive coordinator — consider a premium college head coaching job?
Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady is another coach worth inquiring about. It has become exceedingly clear that the combination of Brady and QB Joe Burrow was the secret sauce that turned 2019 LSU into one of the best college teams ever. Would Brady consider running a college program? Or would he rather wait to become an NFL head coach and never have to FaceTime a 16-year-old who isn’t one of his own children?
I’ll throw out one more wild-card name from the NFL, and once again I have no idea if this coach would want to do the recruiting a college job requires. Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn connects very easily with players. He’d be an amazing recruiter — if he chose to be. He’s also a Pete Carroll disciple who might be able to recreate the energy of the Carroll era that former Carroll assistants Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian could not in their tenures at USC. Maybe Quinn is happy in the NFL. But the onetime Florida defensive coordinator always struck me as the type of person who would excel as a college head coach.
Some of you people are real assholes.....if you see a thread started by a newbie that has already been covered, why the need to rip them apart? Just move on, no need to embarrass the guy.
Whoever wrote this pigeonholes reasons Franklin would take the job, but is entirely dismissive of a guy who coaches at CINCY being interested b/c he has a good gig there. That is idiotic
I think for Fickell, it's more that he has something like 6 kids, one on the team in Cincy, and has shown he's not very willing to leave the midwest....
I think Franklin and the team are ready. This is just noise (amplified by message boards, social media, and radio). I'm more concerned with having something like 300 people visiting for recruiting purposes...
If JF had only worked for schools in the state of Pennsylvania, he might be viewed the same way as Fickell. I don't even know why people mention ND as a place he might be interested in. Fickell seems like a lifer that could be waiting on his second chance with the Buckeyes and until he makes a move, it's hard to believe otherwise.
The article states that one of the biggest problems at USC is the offensive line. Like CJF going there is going to fix that.
Hey, I'm one of those assholes! Why did I post a smartass comment? Well, I genuinely felt that a new thread was not needed. I did not feel that I "ripped the guy apart" - people might need a thicker skin to be on this board but I don't think that this poster was abused that much. Finally, why didn't you start a new thread for this?
You are 100% right, it probably wasn't needed. But if it was indeed the guys first ever post he was probably excited to make it and really didn't know there were rules. He had an idea and wanted to go with it.
I am just saying that some people can't just let things go, or maybe a "hey new guy, you might want to check and see how many posts on this exact subject there are before you start a whole new one on the same subject." that is even if you HAVE to say anything at all.
In other words, USC needs Franklin more than the other way around. Yeah, that’s a reason to link him to this opening (eye roll).
