To be fair... I do think that a big element of Franklin being called "overrated" is people - whether consciously or subconsciously - holding out mediocre records in 2014-15 against him. At the time, there was definitely a sense that a great coach "should" do more with that, even the idea that O'Brien did better under the "same" circumstances. Of course, that's bullcrap, since O'Brien did not suffer the worse of the sanction. O'Brien still had a solid core and a decent sized roster to work with. The way the sanctions played out, the worse years were always to come when the impact on smaller recruiting classes and weaker-due-the-black-cloud quality of players worked their way through. 2015 was probably the nadir of our talent level and depth so it's no surprise that we were kinda luck just to get to 7-6. I'd argue that not having losing seasons was very impressive, but the media ignores that due to just a simplistic take on W-L.
My point being that Franklin suffered a bit in terms of his "first impressions" as a PSU coach in 2014-15 and I think that that perception has lingered going forward. Such that people (like in the media or even fellow coaches) are hesitant to buy into the 2016+ success as being "real". But it doesn't matter, another year or two, especially if we make the CFP one of the years, will finally break people of that tune.