Penn State HC James Franklin has taken losing big games to a whole other level, and it’s becoming embarrassing for the people in Happy Valley
It was another beautiful college football Saturday, and yet another top 10 loss by the Penn State Nittany Lions. They fell 20 to 13 to the Ohio State Buckeyes at home, almost eliminating their chances at controlling their own destiny in the Big Ten conference. It is another blemish on the resume for head coach […]
It was another beautiful college football Saturday, and yet another top 10 loss by the Penn State Nittany Lions. They fell 20 to 13 to the Ohio State Buckeyes at home, almost eliminating their chances at controlling their own destiny in the Big Ten conference.
It is another blemish on the resume for head coach James Franklin as well. It’s a part of that resume that no one wants to add to, titled “mediocrity”.
With that loss, Franklin's career record against top 10 teams at Penn State now sits at 3-19 overall. Even in Happy Valley, he hasn’t been any better, now pushing it to 1-7 at home in such contests. At a place like Penn State, you are judged by victories in the biggest moments, and Franklin has failed time and time again.
To make matters worse, an end isn’t in sight, at least if he coaches the full duration of his current contract. Penn State was able to win the Big Ten during the 2016 season, which has been the crowning achievement for Franklin with the program.
Despite an up-and-down tenure since then, Franklin was rewarded with a 10-year contract extension in 2021. It had a base value of $75 million.
That is an average of $7.5 million per year to accumulate less than a 14 percent win percentage against the best opponents on your schedule. Instead, there is a complacency to just be considered at best the third best team in the Big Ten conference by the university. It’s hard to imagine that Nittany Lions fans are overly happy about the trajectory of the program right now.
I guess one positive about the Franklin contract is that he gets an additional $350,000 for winning the Big Ten championship game, which is obviously very unlikely. Franklin also gets $400,000 for making the College Football Playoff, and $800,000 for winning a national championship.
At least the university won’t have to give Franklin any additional money, at least not consistently. If you’re into saving money, then Franklin is doing his service in big games.
The major questions that many will continue to ask is when will enough be enough? For those who are wondering, Franklin’s contract carries a $2 million buyout in 2024 and 2025, which drops to $1 million for the remaining years of the deal. Obviously we have no idea if the heat is high on him internally, but the information is out there for arguments sake.
You have to think that conversations are at least happening after this contest. Is Franklin a bad coach? Not necessarily, but he brings unnecessary attention to the program negatively off the field at times, and this program has clearly reached its ceiling with him leading it.
Is Penn State content with being a second tier team in the conference, and constantly framed as a pretender? That’s what the administration is tasked with answering. As the failures in big games continue, the noise is only going to get louder.