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Dan Patrick Reporting Mutual Interest Franklin and U$C

Absolutely...and no reason to "hold your nose". He's in his mid-fifties, has a ton of contacts in NJ, a season as an NFL HC...didn't go well but neither did Saban's...and is a good recruiter.

You call Matt Rhule and ask if he's really, really happy in the NFL - and if he could be happier in State College... :).

This only after doing everything you can to keep Franklin.
 
I'm not sure why everyone keeps asking 'why doesn't he just squash these rumors?'. I mean, I get people want to know why he doesn't but at this point it's clear his non-denial is intentional, right? It's happened enough times by now and he's never once issued a flat denial. It's not like he's never heard someone say "if you give a flat denial this will all go away". So we know it's on purpose.

The debate should be centered on why doesn't he? It's either a continuous leverage play because he has to fight tooth and nail with our administration for everything he wants or he's just not particularly happy at Penn State or thinks he can't win a title here. I suppose any of those could be true but the leverage play makes the most sense IMO.

I agree with your take, but I like to think (perhaps naively) it might be Franklin just trying to be honest. Let's face it: anyone would be willing to move if enough money is thrown at them. It might be an amount that isn't realistic, but any coach's agent will at least listen to any offer. So, maybe Franklin just doesn't want to be that guy who denies any interest and then two weeks later is on the podium being announced for a new position - doesn't mean he expects to go, but is just keeping his options open.

Realistically, I don't see him leaving because there isn't any job or opportunity better than PSU that he'd be offered. I think he'd be a fool to go to USC unless they like doubled his salary or something.
 
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You call Matt Rhule and ask if he's really, really happy in the NFL - and if he could be happier in State College... :).

This only after doing everything you can to keep Franklin.

Does Ms. Excellence want to get into a bidding war with David Tepper? That would be hilarious.
 
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If USC comes to the table with a 5+ year deal averaging $8M/yr, I don't see PSU matching it. Also, I would say that USC is an easier job than Penn State. No academic expectations, easy to recruit people to LA, enough talent in state, and no PAC 12 programs comparable to Ohio State.

If Franklin wasn't interested in the job, he'd come right out and say it. He's used these situations in the past to leverage better deals, and there's no reason to believe he's not using this to try and get what he wants.
It hasn’t been easier for any of the last six coaches.
 
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Also, interesting to note that despite the seemingly constant rumors about Franklin being considered for other jobs, he's the third longest tenured coach in the Big Ten after Ferentz and Fitzgerald.

Edit: Heck, there's only 17 coaches in all of Div 1-A that have been at their current school longer than Franklin. And Franklin was someone who had jumped from job to job prior to coming to PSU.
 
Bruce Feldman on Franklin as a USC HC Candidate:

James Franklin, Penn State head coach: The biggest wild card among the college head coaches is Franklin. He worked wonders at Vanderbilt and then restored Penn State into a powerhouse. He’s recruited very well, and has the kind of presence that would resonate well in Los Angeles. He knows he’s got a very good job in Happy Valley, not too far from where he grew up. Still, he’s now been there a long time and won a ton of games, but jobs like USC don’t come open often. This is probably one of the few situations in college football to which I think he would have a hard time saying no. Franklin has a buyout now, but at $4 million, and for USC that’s manageable for a top-tier coach.

He also mentions Southern California native and Clemson OC Tony Elliott as a dark horse candidate...FWIW.
Evidence here that these media folks don’t look at PSU as a top tier job.
 
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I would have preferred an I am not interested response, which helps with recruiting. CJF didn’t do that
 
Also, interesting to note that despite the seemingly constant rumors about Franklin being considered for other jobs, he's the third longest tenured coach in the Big Ten after Ferentz and Fitzgerald.

Edit: Heck, there's only 17 coaches in all of Div 1-A that have been at their current school longer than Franklin. And Franklin was someone who had jumped from job to job prior to coming to PSU.
So if he turns this one down, will we have to go through this same crap on this board when Ed O gets fired?
 
Bruce Feldman on Franklin as a USC HC Candidate:

James Franklin, Penn State head coach: The biggest wild card among the college head coaches is Franklin. He worked wonders at Vanderbilt and then restored Penn State into a powerhouse. He’s recruited very well, and has the kind of presence that would resonate well in Los Angeles. He knows he’s got a very good job in Happy Valley, not too far from where he grew up. Still, he’s now been there a long time and won a ton of games, but jobs like USC don’t come open often. This is probably one of the few situations in college football to which I think he would have a hard time saying no. Franklin has a buyout now, but at $4 million, and for USC that’s manageable for a top-tier coach.

He also mentions Southern California native and Clemson OC Tony Elliott as a dark horse candidate...FWIW.
Why, precisely, is Franklin the "biggest wild card among college coaches"?...whatever that means. And PSU is now a "powerhouse"...interesting...you have to beat the big boys with some degree of regularity to deserve that label. And, he's recruited well, not "very well"...in fact the last two classes have been far less than stellar. I like James and have always supported him, but this piece could have been written by his mother.
 
It could be all BS but Franklin keeps it going. The media treats Penn St like a 2nd tier program because they bring Franklin up with every opening. Franklin never just shuts this down so the impression is he will at least entertain leaving.

It's not leaked that Franklin is interested but rather assumed. Franklin allows this to happen time and time again.

So either the fans are wrong about Penn St being a top tier program or the media is wrong to think the Penn St head coach should be interested in other jobs. Franklin does nothing to dissuade the media's opinion.
I don't believe that the media thinks Franklin should be interested in other jobs. They think that USC should be interested in Franklin.
 
Franklin is near $7mm now, so I don't think $8mm cuts it. It wouldn't surprise me if they couldn't offer that much and staffing, salaries and levels, could be a major sticking pint.
Plus they would need to make up for the tax differential between PA and CA. That amount would need grossed up quite a bit.
 
Why can’t Franklin just say no? What is so hard about that? And people believe he does this to get coaches more money?. That’s just more bullshit
 
Why can’t Franklin just say no? What is so hard about that? And people believe he does this to get coaches more money?. That’s just more bullshit
Bullshit is the media bringing up his name after the 2nd game of the season when he has an entire season to coach ahead of him, including one of the biggest games of the season.
 
Why, precisely, is Franklin the "biggest wild card among college coaches"?...whatever that means. And PSU is now a "powerhouse"...interesting...you have to beat the big boys with some degree of regularity to deserve that label. And, he's recruited well, not "very well"...in fact the last two classes have been far less than stellar. I like James and have always supported him, but this piece could have been written by his mother.
If that’s support, I’d rather you didn’t support me.
 
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I don't believe that the media thinks Franklin should be interested in other jobs. They think that USC should be interested in Franklin.
The writer above wrote “but jobs like USC don’t come open often”. Sounds like he thinks Franklin should be interested in USC.
 
Plus they would need to make up for the tax differential between PA and CA. That amount would need grossed up quite a bit.
Or he doesn't care about the money at all, because he's already made enough during his career for him and his family to live out their days quite comfortably. I will say that if this is yet another leverage play, PSU needs to raise the buyout. I don't fault CJF for applying leverage but I will fault him for doing it every single year.
 
Why can’t Franklin just say no? What is so hard about that? And people believe he does this to get coaches more money?. That’s just more bullshit
Hard to say no if there hasn’t been an offer or a discussion.
 
Or he doesn't care about the money at all, because he's already made enough during his career for him and his family to live out their days quite comfortably. I will say that if this is yet another leverage play, PSU needs to raise the buyout. I don't fault CJF for applying leverage but I will fault him for doing it every single year.
Is there any proof that he’s ever done it, let alone every single year? Just because posters on here think that’s what he’s doing doesn’t mean it is.
 
Bruce Feldman on Franklin as a USC HC Candidate:

James Franklin, Penn State head coach: The biggest wild card among the college head coaches is Franklin. He worked wonders at Vanderbilt and then restored Penn State into a powerhouse. He’s recruited very well, and has the kind of presence that would resonate well in Los Angeles. He knows he’s got a very good job in Happy Valley, not too far from where he grew up. Still, he’s now been there a long time and won a ton of games, but jobs like USC don’t come open often. This is probably one of the few situations in college football to which I think he would have a hard time saying no. Franklin has a buyout now, but at $4 million, and for USC that’s manageable for a top-tier coach.

He also mentions Southern California native and Clemson OC Tony Elliott as a dark horse candidate...FWIW.
LOL Finebaum talking out his ass. The job doesn't come open often, except like 6 times in the last 11 years.
 
The bigger question is why does his name get brought up in the first place? Saban, Dabo, Day and many others don’t get brought up, so they don’t have to deal with shutting it down. Obviously it’s the media that don’t think PSU is a destination job and it’s not Franklin’s job to convince them it is. If he shoots this one down, his name will be brought up again if LSU fires Ed.
Ed is getting fired unless they pull off a miracle season like 10-2.
 
LOL Finebaum talking out his ass. The job doesn't come open often, except like 6 times in the last 11 years.

Feldman, but good point. No hire post-Carroll has been a good fit though IMO. I heard people liked Helton but he didn’t have a lot of interest in recruiting inner-city talent, which has been important to their success.
 
Ed is getting fired unless they pull off a miracle season like 10-2.
And the first name on the list will be Franklin and we will have this exact discussion on this board again like we’ve done a zillion times before.
 
Franklin being talked about in the media as a hot commodity for a couple weeks is a great thing for recruiting. We've seen this a hundred times before and there's no reason to believe he's going to leave. It's a non-story. Of course USC is interested in him because he's a great coach.
I won't bother getting into the fact that half of the people here wanted to run him out of town last year anyway.
 
Franklin being talked about in the media as a hot commodity for a couple weeks is a great thing for recruiting. We've seen this a hundred times before and there's no reason to believe he's going to leave. It's a non-story. Of course USC is interested in him because he's a great coach.
I won't bother getting into the fact that half of the people here wanted to run him out of town last year anyway.
Some folks are mad he hasn’t turned down an offer that hasn’t even been made yet.
 
Plus they would need to make up for the tax differential between PA and CA. That amount would need grossed up quite a bit.

And cost of living between LA and State College. They are just a little different

Discussed this earlier. I think $9mm is the starting point. That puts him in the company of Saban, Dabo, and Jimbo. I would be surprised if USC goes there.
 
Ed is getting fired unless they pull off a miracle season like 10-2.

And he's done lost once BEFORE getting into the SEC West slate.

Feldman, but good point. No hire post-Carroll has been a good fit though IMO. I heard people liked Helton but he didn’t have a lot of interest in recruiting inner-city talent, which has been important to their success.

USC is weird. I agree with everything about the job that you have written, but the reality paints a much different picture. Something is wrong there. The talent they have should be enough to compete for the conference title every year. They don't have a Bama or Clemson or OSU to deal with. In fact, they should be that team.

Unlike Nebraska, they aren't in an area devoid of talent.

Unlike Texas, the boosters aren't undercutting you every year.

During the Pete years, they were almost as dominant as Bama is right now. And I wondered if it was going to end. Now, I wonder if it's coming back.
 
That’s one game in one year….PSU has 16 double digit win seasons since 1979 compared to USC’s 6. Penn State isn’t firing coaches every few years due to lack of production. We may not be a blue blood, but we’re light years ahead of USC.
A blue blood program goes back several decades - PSU is still blue blood
 
And he's done lost once BEFORE getting into the SEC West slate.



USC is weird. I agree with everything about the job that you have written, but the reality paints a much different picture. Something is wrong there. The talent they have should be enough to compete for the conference title every year. They don't have a Bama or Clemson or OSU to deal with. In fact, they should be that team.

Unlike Nebraska, they aren't in an area devoid of talent.

Unlike Texas, the boosters aren't undercutting you every year.

During the Pete years, they were almost as dominant as Bama is right now. And I wondered if it was going to end. Now, I wonder if it's coming back.
You’re exactly right, there’s something going on there that people on the outside can’t see. Everyone they’ve hired since Carroll (and there have been a lot) have not lived up to expectations. Rick Neuheisal said on the radio a couple years ago that PAC 12 schools give too much of their money to the non revenue sports (especially the Olympic type sports) which doesn’t leave enough for football. I don’t know if that’s right, but he’s pretty involved in the PAC 12 so he would know more than me.
 
A blue blood program goes back several decades - PSU is still blue blood
I tend to think so too, but if someone is using national championships as a measurement, then we’re probably not or we’re just on the cusp, kind of Blue Blood Lite.
 
And he's done lost once BEFORE getting into the SEC West slate.



USC is weird. I agree with everything about the job that you have written, but the reality paints a much different picture. Something is wrong there. The talent they have should be enough to compete for the conference title every year. They don't have a Bama or Clemson or OSU to deal with. In fact, they should be that team.

Unlike Nebraska, they aren't in an area devoid of talent.

Unlike Texas, the boosters aren't undercutting you every year.

During the Pete years, they were almost as dominant as Bama is right now. And I wondered if it was going to end. Now, I wonder if it's coming back.
How are Texas boosters undercutting the Longhorns?
 
I tend to think so too, but if someone is using national championships as a measurement, then we’re probably not or we’re just on the cusp, kind of Blue Blood Lite.
National Championships should be earned on the field. On the field, PSU is a blue blood.
 
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You’re exactly right, there’s something going on there that people on the outside can’t see. Everyone they’ve hired since Carroll (and there have been a lot) have not lived up to expectations. Rick Neuheisal said on the radio a couple years ago that PAC 12 schools give too much of their money to the non revenue sports (especially the Olympic type sports) which doesn’t leave enough for football. I don’t know if that’s right, but he’s pretty involved in the PAC 12 so he would know more than me.
I thought he would be in Centre County for Tavern re-opening?!
 
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