A friend of mine threw a big wrench in my theory that Franklin is leaving PSU. I was going on and on about how every time Franklin is asked if he is leaving PSU he never definitively denies it. I was talking about all of the vague answers he has given at press conferences.
My friend looked at me and said “That’s how you know he is staying!”.
It caught me off guard, but then I thought about it. His theory was, every coach that left a program throughout history has definitively denied they are leaving… before they left. Best example was Saban when he went to Alabama. Theory being that if Franklin was leaving PSU, he WOULD be telling everyone he is definitely staying at PSU. Since the opposite is true he must be staying.
I’ve done a lot of reading about the subject over the past several days. Read a few message boards. As always you never know the truth but it is intriguing to me so I’ve been in the rabbit hole for a while now. The counter argument to why Franklin is staying is interesting as well.
There are a lot of people that think Franklin is essentially using his candidacy with other jobs as a bargaining chip to get the administration to put more money into the program. Now, I look at Franklin and I feel he is compensated well. I didn’t even realize how well he is paid with his most recent contract. But a lot of people keep talking about ‘facilities’ not being up to date. Others say that coordinator and coach pay is not top tier. How are we going to retain Mike Yurcich if another program comes calling?
I always find it hard to believe that PSU doesn’t have awesome facilities for the football team and I never know exactly what people are talking about. One of the examples given was football team housing. There are rumors that some top recruits visit PSU, see the apartments where the football team stays and don’t commit because they are not nearly as nice as other elite programs (Alabama, tOSU, Clemson, etc.). Other examples mentioned how a football player spends most of their day at their apartment, the football team gym, and at the player’s cafeteria. Apparently there is a big gap between PSU and the top programs in all of these areas.
So the theory of those that think Franklin is staying is that he is bargaining with the administration, not for his own pay, but to put even more money into facilities for the football team and increase coordinator / coaching salary. And I suppose, if they do not agree to do it… maybe he would go somewhere else? I read an article this past Friday that simply asked the question
"Where will Penn State's James Franklin coach next year?" The article posed this question to 6 different sports writers. 5 of 6 said Franklin will be back at PSU next year. They all gave pretty solid reasons. Two said they think his bargaining strategy will work, he will get commitment from the school to invest in the program and will stay. One said if Franklin leaves for LSU or USC, has a bad season or two, he will be fired and concludes he will stay at PSU because he has much more leeway. Several think he doesn’t want to let go of this 2022 recruiting class and wants to take one last run at a natty (or at least getting in the playoff) with this class which could lead to a commitment from the school. The general consensus is, he has a great class coming in, why give that up or put it in jeopardy? It took a lot of work to put this class together, and it will be a major grind to move, take on the task of putting together a coaching staff and stabilizing a recruiting class at a new school.
So maybe Franklin is a really good actor when it comes to a supposed ‘bluff’ with the administration? A good enough actor that he fooled me, and maybe others? Will the administration call his bluff? If he is a good actor, LA would be a good fit. The one sports writer that said he thinks Franklin will leave felt he would go to USC because there is a ton of talent in-state in CA for recruiting and “if Franklin wants to be the first African American head coach to win a college football national championship, then USC is the perfect landing spot.”
Franklin did say “there’s a lot of moving parts with all of these things.” I’ve heard that another one of the “moving parts” could be the PSU administration. Rumors are that President Eric Barron may be retiring soon. Other rumors have AD Sandy Barbour considering retirement in the next couple years as well. If there is turnover in the administration, how could that impact the future and the commitment to the program? Could a new AD want a fresh start with a new HC? I will admit that my mind has changed. I think Franklin will be at PSU next year. I was happy with how they played against tOSU this weekend but there was never really any point in the game where I thought PSU would win. And even though a week passed, I still can’t stop thinking about that Illinois game. I am still intrigued with how this plays out. I think my theory that he is leaving was wishful thinking after the worst loss I’ve witnessed in the Franklin era. Still, as I mentioned earlier you never know the truth. Maybe Franklin will be one of those “moving parts” as well. Only time will tell.
ETA: a quick google search shows that Eric Barron announced he will retire in 2022 and Sandy Barbour announced she will retire at the end of her contract in 2023. So, not rumors. They are based on public statements.