Generic MGoBlogger

June 17th, 2014 at 6:05 PM ^

He led Vanderbilt to three straight bowl appearances while playing in arguably the toughest conference in the nation, and this is Vanderbilt we are talking about.  He went into the job with little talent and left there with two straight 9-4 seasons... Vandy was in worse of a state than Kentucky was last season and had very little in the way of recruiting, yet Franklin was able to build them into a team that the likes of Tennessee and Georgia fear.

Now by no means is Franklin an elite coach yet, and it should be interesting to see what he does at a much larger school with easily much more pressure to win.  However, I don't think you should be so quick to write him off as a top flight coach.  He isn't there yet, but he's not too far off, either. 

Generic MGoBlogger

June 17th, 2014 at 7:04 PM ^

True, but it was four more SEC teams that Vanderbilt beat then than in the thirty to forty years before Franklin arrived there.  Vandy has appeared in seven bowl games, and Franklin is responsible for three of them (Two out of their four wins)... Vandy was basically ship that was almost impossible to turn around. Franklin did it while being in the best conference top to bottom in the nation. 

clarkiefromcanada

June 17th, 2014 at 9:33 PM ^

An apt comparison here is Al Golden the former coach of my beloved Temple Owls (North Philly, yo). Golden was young, hungry, talented and a phenomenal recruiter given what he had to work with and Temple's Vanderbilt levels plus of historical mediocrity. Golden took the team to respectability, recruited a bunch of NFL talent (how I miss you, Bernard Pierce) and then took his talents to Coral Gables and the U. At Miami, Golden has been solid if not spectacular bringing in strong recruiting classes but only fair results by Miami standards. This will be James Franklin's destiny.

NittanyFan

June 17th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^

(1)  Joyner was on the PSU BOT in November 2011.  PSU of course needed an AD in November 2011 because of Curley's involvement in the Sandusky affair.  That's basically how Joyner got the job --- an "emergency stop gap hire" of sorts.  "Stop gap" are the two important words. Much like previous PSU President Dr. Erickson, Joyner was always meant as a "couple-year bridge" AD to get beyond the worst of the Sandusky mess.  Once Erickson retired (he left last month, Dr. Barron is already installed as new PSU President), Joyner's depature was merely a matter of time.

 

(2)  Joyner fired the fencing coach a few months ago, and the fencing coach (Kaidanov) has come back and sued, with both Penn State and David Joyner specifically listed as the defendants.  This was a highly successful fencing coach (12 NCAA team Championships),  

 

Rumor (everything that follows in this paragraph is rumor, PSU officially has no word on this) is that in summer 2013 an athletic secretary saw a fencer doing drugs.  That secretary reported the incident up the chain per PSU athletic policy (some of it in place as a direct result of the Freeh Report).  "Up the chain per PSU athletic policy" however did NOT mean telling Kaidanov.  The fencer passed all drug tests and was cleared of any wrong-doing.  But in the meantime, Kaidanov berated the secretary for not telling him first.  When Joyner found out about this, Kaidanov was eventually fired.

 

Anyway, that's a long story.  But the dynamic (university policy ensuring that a coach isn't the first to "gain knowledge" of an incident, that coach getting angry when he learns he was bypassed) is definitely interesting in the wake of November 2011.  I am intrigued as to where that story will go.

Former_DC_Buck

June 17th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^

There is a very vocal segment of the PSU fanbase that have, what may be best described as a scorched earth policy when it comes to anyone who was on the BOT that fired Joe Paterno. None of the alumni elected members of the BOT are left they have all ben replaced by candidates who hold the view the BOT was wrong to fire Paterno and was wrong to accept the Freeh report. They hated Joyner for being part of the group that fired Paterno and hated him even more for his post-Freeh report comments that he agreed with the conclusions of the Freeh report. To them Joyner's hires are mere blind luck.

NittanyFan

June 18th, 2014 at 5:03 AM ^

The BOT vote on 11-November-2011 was unanimous.  I've always felt that firing Joe was a tough and sure-to-be unpopular decision, but also an absolutely necessary decision.  A lot of the haters just cannot got beyond the fact that the decision was "absolutely necessary."  (could you imagine Paterno coaching that game vs. Nebraska?!?!?!)

 

The new PSU BOT dynamic is very interesting.  The "very vocal segment" now has all their people on the board --- including a couple fellas who aren't lightweights and also have rather "interesting" backgrounds (e.g., former Sallie Mae CEO Al Lord).  Going to be a big-time civil war on the BOT over the next few years.  Because those folks agendas/interests are still completey opposite the agendas/interests of the rest of the BOT.

Former_DC_Buck

June 18th, 2014 at 9:23 AM ^

They are very active, as you mentioned.  They got their people on the board.  They are trying to push back whever they can.  They seemed initally happy with Barron, since they thought he handled the NCAA well with the Winston issue , but have cooled to him recently.  It seems as though he would need to try, convict and execute Louis Freeh, Cynthia Bladwin and Mark Emmert for crimes against Nittany to make some of them happy.  That and get the statue back up and the wins restored. Also have the phrase Move On punishable by public flogging. 

I'm not that familiar with PA politics and I don't want this to divert to a political discussion, but they are also actively opposing Corbett and seem to be single issue voters.  Those that are devout Rs, at least at this point, claim they will forget about their feelings on other social issues, just to get rid of him.  I know they are trying to push for bills in the PA legislature to reform the BOT.  The latest BOT committee assignments came out and they are unhappy that their new folks are not on anything of significance. 

As for firing Paterno, I do think the BOT might have put Paterno on Administrative leave pending the investigation.  I feel Paterno backed them into a corner with his statements about stepping down at the end of the season.  I also think he deserved to be fired in person and not given a phone number to call.  These folks also seem to think that public outcry would have died out over time and PSU failed to stick to its guns.