Eventually, James Franklin is going to need to rack up the wins against teams that matter for him to keep on getting them fat paychecks. While Penn State should absolutely spend top dollar on a head coach worth a damn, Franklin has not shown any ability to beat Michigan or Ohio State with any regularity whatsoever. Penn State lost to Ohio State two weeks ago and survived an Indiana scare...
Not to say he is getting into Jimbo Fisher levels of snake oil sales, but it has been all sizzle and no steak from Franklin's program year after year after year. If the Nittany Lions defeat the Wolverines later on this season, then I will shut my mouth. I just cannot say the same for Paul Finebaum. Here is what ESPN's lead college football analyst had to say about Penn State while on The Matt Barrie Show.
He sees Penn State having one major problem, and that would be their underperforming head coach.
"We buried Penn State last week. And, you know, they still have the same coach, and that's the problem."
Here is the entire episode of The Matt Barrie Show where Finebaum rips Penn State ever so slightly.
With how good Manny Diaz's defense is and how promising Drew Allar is as passer, we have to wonder if Franklin is the one holding Penn State back from being a College Football Playoff team.
Paul Finebaum thinks James Franklin is not a good head coach at all
Look. What Franklin did during his brief run at Vanderbilt was absolutely incredible. He had Vandy beating traditional rivals on the reg and cracking the AP Top 25 on occasion. With him being a Pennsylvania native, I had no issue with him leaving Nashville to take over the blue-blood program in need of some guidance after Bill O'Brien left for Houston. However, things have gotten rather stale...
Franklin won the Big Ten in 2016, but that was seven years ago. Ohio State made the College Football Playoff over the Nittany Lions because they had two losses on the season. In the years since, it has been a lot of losses by Penn State to Urban Meyer, Jim Harbaugh and Ryan Day. With Michigan State pulling back, this has allowed Penn State to bubble to the surface as the Big Ten East's third best.
I don't know if this is the solution, but Diaz is one helluva coordinator and his defensive predecessor Brent Pry is starting to get things moving over at Virginia Tech, alright. Clearly, Franklin knows how to surround himself with great assistants, but at the end of the day, he has to start showing us that he can beat the upper crust of his conference on any occasion. Otherwise, he is the next Kirk Ferentz...
Franklin could earn back our trust with a big win over a rival, but let's not count on that happening yet.
