The search for Penn State University’s 16th head football coach in school history has come to an end with Philadelphia area native and former Vanderbilt head football coach, James Franklin, agreeing to terms with the school. This hire marks the fourth head football coach for Penn state since 2011 (Joe Paterno, Tom Bradley, Bill O’ Brien and Franklin.) Previous to the 2011 season you have to go back to 1918 to find four different head coaching hires in the program.
So now we are left with the question, did they get the right guy? The answer to that question is, absolutely.
Franklin spent the last three seasons as the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores in the South Eastern Conference. Now, as difficult as the South Eastern Conference is, seven of the last eight national champions came out of the SEC, coaching Vanderbilt in the tough SEC is a whole new ballgame. Franklin, who went 21-15 as head coach of the Commodores, led the team to three straight bowl games. Franklin also led the program to its first consecutive nine-win seasons in school history. Franklin’s record in conference play is also impressive, considering the circumstances he had. In the three years under Franklin, Vanderbilt had an 11-13 record in SEC play. Take all these numbers and also consider that Vanderbilt just completed its fifth season in the SEC. And in the program’s first two seasons in the SEC, Vanderbilt went a combined 4-20. As if these numbers listed above weren’t impressive enough, I will give you four more reasons why Franklin is absolutely the slam dunk hire for Penn state Football.
1) Reruiting. As we all know, Penn State is in the middle of the most challenging times that the program has ever faced. With that, recruiting has become increasingly difficult. So the first thing that will help Penn State football recover from these hard times is have a tremendous recruiter at the helm. And a tremendous recruiter is exactly what Franklin is. Even though Vanderbilt is a SEC school, it is not nearly as flashy and prevalent the SEC powers or even a middle of the pack SEC school. Also, being the academic powerhouse the Vanderbilt is, most top recruits do not have the grades to get into Vanderbilt. All these challenges piled up against Franklin as he was trying to build a competitive program at Vanderbilt. Even with all these challenges, Franklin kept Vanderbilt within the top 50 recruiting classes according to Scouts.com. Vanderbilt topped out as the No. 19 recruiting class in 2013 with four four-star recruits and 19 three-star recruits. Now, even with all these troubling times at Penn State, the atmosphere and the tradition at Penn State is still far more appealing. With the seemingly less challenges that Franklin has in his corner at Penn State, he should be able to bring in top recruits to take the program back to its glory.
2) Ability to persevere. As sated throughout this article, being the head coach at Vanderbilt provides challenges that coaches at most other FBS schools do not have to deal with. However, the perseverance that Franklin showed and the overall success he had at Vanderbilt shows that he is able to take those challenges and flip them into success. Before Franklin, Vanderbilt was a laughing stock of the SEC. While Franklin was there Vanderbilt turned into a very tough game for SEC schools. Especially when the SEC schools visited Vanderbilt’s home stadium. After coming close to pulling major upsets in SEC play, Vanderbilt finally turned the corner this season when they defeated the then No. 15 Georgia Bulldogs in Nashville.
3) James Franklin is not a Paterno guy. As much as Penn State alumni and fans still believe this is Paterno’s team and it should be ran like it still is Paterno’s team, I believe that is the complete opposite circumstances that the program needs. As the University did with the Bill O’ Brien hire, the school continually attempts to move on with its head coaching hires. Franklin will be able to bring a whole new aspect to the program and will be able to rebuild the program back to the glory that it once had, but in his own way. Franklin will most likely bring in a completely new staff and will continue the transition from the Paterno era.
4) Lastly, stability. The head coaching carousel that the Penn State fans have faced the past three years is very new. However, even though it is very hard to tell what Franklin will do, as a Pennsylvania native, Franklin understands the importance of this job. He understands it much more than a Bill O’ Brien could ever understand it. He understands what football Saturdays mean in State College, Pennsylvania. This job could very likely be on the list of James Franklin’s dream jobs. Now as I stated before, it is tough to predict the future and predict the offers that will come Franklin’s way, but I do not think it is out of the question to say that Franklin could be a long-term hire and be at Penn State for the next 20 years.
As I say all this I warn you, don’t put unrealistic expectations on Franklin right away. I say give franklin a season or maybe even two to get his program in place and really let him get out on the recruiting trail. This is the best hire that Penn State Football could’ve hoped for. And with that, Penn State will return to glory after this hire.
