OT- James Franklin Involved in Incident at Vandy
James Franklin has been mentioned as contacting a rape victim from his days at Vandy. I'm sure PSU is not too thrilled with the situation.
Edit: A PSU reporter on Twitter has mentioned Franklin will address the media on Thursday.
James Franklin is slated to address the media at the first stop on the coaches caravan Thurs. afternoon in State College. So yeah....
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/04/29/vanderbilt-footba…
Key part about Coach Franklin:
It went on to say that at some point, "Coach Franklin called her in for a private meeting and told her he wanted her to get fifteen pretty girls together and form a team to assist with the recruiting even though he knew it was against the rules. He added that all the other colleges did it."
Yikes.
The only thing that comes to mind here at the moment is that either someone at PSU did an absolutely phenomenal job vetting candidates when O'Brien left and this may not amount to much, or Franklin may have been involved in a hostess program and Penn State swung for the fences only to be completely baffled by a changeup. If the latter, then I don't know how you can keep Franklin honestly - this is reprehensible behavior for a coach, if true.
Sorry to say it, but I'll take any schadenfreude after this depressing month.
going down.
They know what to do in situations like this...
A fanpost at BSD has the story posted, and I kid you not, one of the responses is as follows:
I guess
I am missing something. What are we supposed to be outraged over here? He said he cared about her? Isn’t that a good thing? Then kicked the players off the team?
Believe deep down in your heart that you are destined to do great things
The PSU supporters on ESPN's comments are unbelievable, also.
They learned nothing in Happy Valley.
He contacted a group of girls to "help him in recruiting" because "other schools were doing it too" is so SEC. Makes me sick but the price of college football. The NCAA turns a blind eye to this behavior but smoking a little weed is the last straw apparently. I don't even know what to say anymore.
was a poorly paid employee.
I would be suprised if this is picked up as a "story". I feel like the honey moon with Frankenstein is too fresh to have this story bring him down.
Can't imagine his Vanderbuilt A squad holds a candle to the talent in Tuscaloosa or Oxford
I would have agreed with you if he was the coach anywhere but Penn State at the moment. I think the recent events with JoPa and Sandusky have made PSU a little wary on this type of situation.
You don't think this is a story? A coach going to see a rape victim and telling her, "We care about you because we need you for recruiting"?
"courtesy girl recruiting" together that's the mind asploder here.
It's only a story if King Media decides it's a story. Otherwise it'll go down as a factual footnote in JF's timeline. If the major media ignores it (and it appears that they will), then the NCAA & Penn State will also ignore it. That's the world we live in. Media attention = important event.
Every institution in the country has a great "A" squad. What separates the Alabamas from the Michigan Techs of the world is depth.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^
As someone who spent 4 years at Vanderbilt, there is some serious talent there (and in Nashville in general) as well. Probably not the quantity of Oxford or Athens, but very respectable, nonetheless.
Nothing will come of this UNLESS Franklin sputters at PSU. If he is less than a success, the Nittany Lion faithful will use this along with other stuff that they will likely dig up against him....I'm sure he's on the bad end of a real estate lawsuit or shredded papers on the way out of Vandy.
EDIT: double post. Computer decided to go rouge
....baton rouge? moulin rouge?
He's been negative recruiting against us (especially with Peppers). I would love to see Hoke run up the score in October.
What did he say to Peppers?
The night before signing day, he told Peppers the NCAA was going drop the hammer on us for the Gibbons case. It almost worked too.
April 29th, 2014 at 11:21 PM ^
There was quite a bit of negative recruiting going on. Brady Hoke would be fired, sanctions were coming.
IIRC, Hoke had to call him and get the situation sorted out before he signed.
but how do we know it was Franklin?
said Peppers last minute wavering involved PSU.
This fucking shit is disgusting. Franklin should be fired. All this shit does is teach young women that they're nothing more than a piece of meat.
There is ENOUGH sex in the world. Keep it out of college athletics.
Do you like fishsticks?
Are you suggesting that he's gay because he thinks the use of recruiting hostesses* is gross?
*A polite euphemism for asking college students to use their sexuality to convince high schoolers to play for certain teams.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^
Joking.
This place is becoming wearisome lately.
Yes I like Fish Sticks in my mouth.
Yes I'm aware that makes me a gay fish.
No I don't care.
April 30th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^
Thanks for playing along, you're a good sport.
April 30th, 2014 at 12:48 AM ^
Personally, I always downvote all the Upton stuff, but mostly because I think it's juvenile and stupid how much the board drools and fawns over her.
To your point, though, Upton is a professional model, and one who specializes in male titillation modeling (i.e., Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model as opposed to art or high fashion model). Which is very different from college coeds being asked by grown men to act as sex objects to lure high schoolers to a certain football team.
Personally, I downvote people who downvote Kate Upton.
Oh, I'm well aware that I'm far in the minority. A busty lady says she likes Michigan, and there's no stopping the adolescent hormone train around here.
adolescent (adj): emotionally or intellectually immature (LINK)
And I'll have you know, my life is plenty fun. I am a cut-up at dinner parties! My bon mots are second to none!
You might be in the minority but you're not alone. The Kate Upton stuff has gotten really annoying.
To be fair, I think that a lot hostesses know exactly what they are doing to an extent. Where it crosses the line is if the coaches actually pressure them to put out too, which has been alleged in the past. The Sports Illustrated article about Okie State football mentioned this, if I remember right.
That's the fundamental problem, and it's a problem even in the absence of overt pressure from the coaching staff.
Teenagers are being asked to negotiate consent in an environment where the girls are told, with a wink, that they don't have to do anything they don't want to and the boys are told, by means of a wink, that the girls are there for their pleasure.
That is inevitably going to go wrong. And when it goes wrong, the grownups that set up the context are going to bear a good share of the reponsibility for the inevitable consequences of their actions.
I've used the word "pimping" but it's actually worse. If they were explicit about it there'd be less room for confusion. Doing it this way means there's going to be the occasional hostess that has a different idea of "the extent" and finds herself, thanks to the school's hypocrisy, in a situation she wouldn't have gotten into on her own.
April 30th, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^
I agree the situations are different, but the comment, "All this shit does is teach young women that they're nothing more than a piece of meat. There is ENOUGH sex in the world. Keep it out of college athletics" applies to both. There's a certain, "they can't do that to our pledges, only we can do that to our pledges" double standard at work, and I was merely trying to point that out.
I remember people hinting about this before PSU hired him. How do you hire a guy with potential red flags like this if you're PSU?
I'm a little surprised they're waiting until Thursday to address this. That leaves 48 hours for this story to gather momentum.