Brown Bear

January 11th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^

BoB is pretty damn good and landed himself an nfl head coaching job so I'm not so sure this is an upgrade. Let's see what Franklin can do first in Happy Valley before we say he's an upgrade. I'm more interested to see how franklins personality meshes with all the old codger "DURR DURR JOEPA WAS WRONGED!" Crowd and how they accept him.

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Danwillhor

January 11th, 2014 at 5:19 PM ^

EDIT: Had to get on comp to edit to apologize. WTF is up with the Android App? First it was Swype but now I literally quad-check my posts before sending and they make no sense. Sometimes it's as simple as "of" being "if" or vice versa. Yet, other times it changes the words to things so outlandish that it has to be the app. Words nowhere near the word I wrote/intended.

 

I actually really like him as a coach (young, from area, success at VANDY in a so called SEC dynasty run, etc) but there are a lot of small things that could derail him or not even get to where bob was. I think the biggest is the spite that the psu AD still have toward bob leaving. He is an NFL caliber coach as so by the Texans. Franklin might be, too. If he just does an equal job to Bob, he may be out in quickly so the contract must be buyout HEAVY. Like, beyond Bob level. Point being that if there are any signs at all of him being a stop gap or hired gun until the sanctions are over and he bolts, teams will neg recruit the crap out of that. It's a great hire, IMO. A quality of hire I wish that they didn't land, tbh. As I said before, it's crazy how teams that are out are in your due situations get top names interested (psu had Franklin, Schiano who I see as a cfb guy, Golden, 3 NFL guys with great resumes as players and coaches, etc) and some jobs like Texas and Michigan can't seem to find any guys in major conferences with a track record willing to coach at a school with unlimited resources, lol. Even when it's a huge step up. Amazing.

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jmblue

January 11th, 2014 at 4:28 PM ^

I'm not sure he's an upgrade.  As Rittenberg notes in his article on the hire, only two of Franklin's 11 SEC wins came against teams with winning records.  He basically performed at a Pat Fitzgerald level there, beating bad/mediocre teams but coming short against the big boys.  Now, he admittedly didn't have much talent to start out with, but he hasn't had any signature wins along the lines of say, Harbaugh's upset of #1 USC his first year.

Franklin's offenses have also been pretty mediocre.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/93455/franklin-hire-brings-rew…

 

 

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MI Expat NY

January 11th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^

I'm not sure there's enough information on BOB to make that determination.  When the mass defections didn't happen before the 2012 season, he wasn't working with that depleted of a roster.  And he was even able to lure in an impact freshman for 2013.  It's this year and next where the sanctions are really going to take hold.  

BOB had a reasonable roster and reasonable success.  Nothing great, nothing bad while working in less than ideal circumstances.  It probably would have taken another 3 years or so to establish a real baseline of what BOB could do as a college coach.

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LSAClassOf2000

January 11th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^

I think that one thing that will definitely help Franklin - and it is thanks to O'Brien - is that he inherits a position which is perhaps in far better shape than it could have been under some other hires. The Nittany Lions will continue to be hampered by sanctions, but I think O'Brien set them up to be about as successful as possible in that period. Franklin seems to want to come home, from the tenor of his statement after accepting the position and I have to think they'll give him a lot of time given the situation. 

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MonkeyMan

January 11th, 2014 at 11:35 AM ^

This seems like a "no lose" situation for Franklin- it seems it would be hard to blame him for losses. A question about the sanctions: what year do they cut the deepest and what year does Penn St come back to full power? Any answers would be appreciated. Thanks

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snarling wolverine

January 11th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^

I wouldn't say that.  Any PSU coach is going to be constantly compared to JoePa (which drove O'Brien crazy), and they're now halfway through the sanctions and haven't had a losing season, so the fans don't expect too much rebuilding.  

I think he just left a "no lose" position for one with much higher expectations.

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bluesalt

January 11th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^

I think BOB probably deserves some credit for mass defections not occurring. He brought in better recruiting classes than people thought possible given their sanctions. Franklin's going to have a tough slog for a couple of years, but if he can keep Hackenberg, they should be bowl eligible the first season they can go to a bowl.

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MI Expat NY

January 11th, 2014 at 11:30 AM ^

I agree, but that was a one time, extremely unique occurrence.  I won't consider it a negative as to his coaching ability if he weren't able to keep the teem together and I don't think it's necesserily indicative of positive college coaching ability that he was able to prevent mass defections. 

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bluebyyou

January 11th, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^

The winner of the East Division, in a couple of years when PSU gets its sanctions lifted, is going to have to run the gauntlet.  Franklin is a dynamic coach and an excellent recruiter, and could represent an arrow to the heart for Maryland in that Franklin has a big ifollowing n in DC, MD and VA.

The sanctions are going to hurt that program for several years and I wonder how the Penn State faithful will deal with matters beyond the new coach's control.  Franklin may also find that the Ghost of Paterno will be a difficult act to follow,, somthing I suspect BOB did not enjoy.

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BlueTuesday

January 11th, 2014 at 10:30 AM ^

I'm hoping this will finally put the past behind them as now Franklin isn't the guy who replaced Joe Paterno. A strong Penn State helps the B1G all the way around.

Sadly, to this day the first thing I think of when I hear Penn State are the children.

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814 East U

January 11th, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^

The BIG needs to start hiring high profile coaches like Franklin. Good for PSU. But I thought the SEC was the stop before heaven? Why are people leaving the Holy Land that is the southeastern conference?

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Steve in PA

January 11th, 2014 at 8:48 PM ^

A lot of SEC coaches have B1G roots.  Saban and Miles are the easy ones.

Franklin (Vandy/PSU) is from PA

Mullen (MSU) coached @ ND and is from PA

Stoops (Ky) coached at IA and is from OH

Pinkel (Mo) is from OH

Jones (Tn) coached @ Rutgers and is from Mi

Bielema (Ar) HC @ Wisconsin

Sumlin (A&M) Played at Purdue coached at Minn & Purdue

That's just head coaches.  I'm sure there is even more ties with assistants.

 

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NOLA Wolverine

January 11th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^

He's been a name to keep tabs on for, what, three years now? And he's going to waltz into Penn State when depth is finally going to become an issue? I don't know why everyone looked at the fact that Obrien was able to to trot out an average to below average BCS conference team in his first two years as proof the sanctions weren't going to destroy Penn State. Taking away scholarships for future classes isn't a problem today. 

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Jack Daniels

January 11th, 2014 at 10:45 AM ^

Just saying, and not trying to hijack the thread, but there were some rumors last night that a certain RB coach might be retiring.....
Take it FWIW
(I know Sam Webb said earlier yesterday that there was no impending retirement but a new rumor popped up)

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