Seven [Of The Many] Lessons of The James Franklin Era

Things for the future

I was trout fishing when the news dropped.

For those of you maybe out of the loop - Penn State fired James Franklin today.

There’s a tendency in moments like this to eulogize, but to be honest, we’ve spent a good five or so years unpacking Franklin’s time with the program. Penn State won a bunch of games under Franklin, lost a bunch of high profile games. 15 days ago Franklin was on the College GameDay set, now he’s on LinkedIn.

What a world.

Instead of a rehash - maybe we’ll get to that later down the road. Here are seven lessons Penn State should take from the James Franklin era into whatever is next. These are in no order because that makes everything twice as hard as it needs to be.

The Cost Of Doing Business:

This was less the case in recent years, but Penn State learned its lesson in the post 2016-Pre Pat Kraft era that being frugal isn’t congruent with winning.

From NIL and facility needs to staffing hires and retention, the era of plodding progress is gone if you’re interested in keeping up with the elite. The good news for Penn State is that Pat Kraft seems more likely to spend all of the money in the state than he is to pump the breaks. There’s value in saying no, but for a while nobody was saying yes.

Term Limits:

At the time it was practical to lock James Franklin in for a 10-year deal because there was a need for stability [see annual coaching rumors] and reason to believe Franklin was about to get over the hump. At the same time, Penn State doesn’t need every coach to be its Forever Coach.

It will be interesting to see how this trend goes over the next 5-20 year [small range, right?] but there’s nothing to say Penn State has to hire a coach and keep them for a decade Sign somebody to a six year deal, give them three to figure it out, and then decide if you wanna add two more years to or pay a reasonable buyout to move on.

That’s what makes this cycle unique - Penn State has never hired a coach since before the Civil Rights movement from outside of the context of "Immediately following Joe Paterno” or “Still dealing with sanctions.” Since Penn State has arrived in a place where it can just make normal hires on the merits of the program itself, it should exercise a lot more freedom to give people slightly shorter ropes. It’s not a five year build anymore. Either get the job done or find somebody who will.

It Starts In The Pocket:

Every football team in America would be better if only they could sign one of the five legitimately great quarterbacks in any given recruiting class.

That sarcasm aside, one of the things perpetually holding Penn State back has been the quarterback position. Penn State’s future coaches shouldn’t be expected to land a Drew Allar level recruiting profile every cycle, but if you’re going to get Sean Clifford, you should be able to get an extra gear out of him. And if you get a high profile kid, unlock that talent. Some of Allar’s shortcomings were his own doing, but from the outside looking in, the plan to make him better never manifested. That has to change.

Doesn’t Need To Be Like This:

This is a bit inside baseball, but the lack of assistant coach media sessions postgame was [I’m 99% on this] nearly zero times over Franklin’s tenure. That was a messaging choice and I understood why, but so many times I wanted someone who understood the game better than me, to explain it. Franklin did a lot of talking in broad strokes but getting in the weeds would have helped educate everyone. Imagine a world where Ricky Rahne explains 4th-and-5 and everyone going - oh, okay, I get it.

A secondary aspect to this is being slightly less paranoid about everything.

Get Out There:

There’s no question that the job of being the head coach at Penn State is a lot of work with not a lot of free time and when you have that free time you might want to leave town. I also think State College is a small oasis in the world of college football and the head coach should - occasionally - just appear in public to interface with people. It’s probably unfair to say Franklin never did this, because he was out and about, but after 12 years he’s leaving Penn State and State College without so much as a picnic table named in his honor following a donation or contribution.

And to be fair, I don’t believe he is required to do that, but imagine a world where Franklin has endeared himself to the community. How might that have changed things. And by extension, while Fumi Franklin is not required to show up at CVS to shake hands and kiss babies, imagine a world where Franklin and his wife are both putting roots into the community itself. That doesn’t win you football games, but it wins your hearts and minds.

Know Yourself:

I think there’s something to be said for Franklin’s willingness to swing at different offensive coordinators over the years, but I’m not sure Franklin ever really articulated what his offensive philosophy was. That’s not to say he didn’t know it, but Penn State’s offensive identity was - from the outside - homogeneous read option, running[ish] quarterback, stuff.

People might downplay the CEO role Franklin took on during his tenure, but there’s something to be said for a coach whose tactical approach is intrinsic to how you view them. Franklin was known more for his management than his tactics. Not a bad thing, but maybe that’s where the last 5% comes from.

Defense Still Wins Championships:

The last 2.5 games aside, Penn State has grown into the program it is today on the back of quality defense. Whatever it tries to do offensively in the future can’t be at the cost of quality defense. This has long been the fabric of Penn State football, it’s hard to imagine things getting better without this staying the same.

And yes, I caught a few fish.