Franklin doesn't have an offensive scheme. What he has is an irrational philosophy (explosive plays or bust, everything else be damned), a penchant for shiny objects and unearned loyalty for "his" guys which has created chaos. John Donovan used a kitchen sink approach to blocking. Gap, zone, sliding protections (spread gap) and man. Our line, as thin as they were scored well above average when executing man blocking plays yet we used that the least amount. Coincidently, that is what every linemen on the roster was recruited and developed to run, including the two converted tackles who scored higher than some legacy players trailing only long time NFL starter Donovan Smith. Donovan was the worst offensive coordinator in history but he was Franklin's guy and we were only free of him because Sandy made Franklin fire him.
In comes Moorhead who was a shiny object but had a coherent philosophy as opposed to a scheme. He is the most pragmatic offensive mind the college game. Moorhead's influence on the program resulted in Franklin's best four years as a head coach. The scheme was known as MAP and was a hybrid of man blocking in the direction of play to suit his players and basic gap on the backside to preserve energy and reduce needless penalties. Simple. The line generally excelled from 16 to 19 despite the average fan's moronic expectation they could successfully block 7 or 8 defenders with 5 linemen and a tight end that was a speed bump at best because the offensive was fundamentally flawed due to a limited passing game. Ricky Rahne's best decision was to leave Joe's offensive in place untouched. Out goes Rahne, include the next shiny object.
The next shiny object was Kirk who embarrassed the best defense Franklin produced and executed with the talent he recruited (14/15 was a mix of O'Brien/Paterno players and the scheme Roof installed). Kirk is a system coach who brought a pure zone blocking scheme not suited to the existing roster but ran it anyway to our detriment. The system more than Covid, ruined 2020. Outgoes Kirk, incomes Yursich. Another system guy.
MY runs a spread gap blocking scheme exclusively which is less suited to the talent on hand than Kirk's zone. The results were predicable. Yes, Franklin IS the problem. He always has been and always will be. Eight years in, he is given no indication what so ever that the team will ever get over the 10 win regular season hump. None. Nada. Zilch. And as a certain Pitt fan will say, "We have him for 10 years!"