Kirby Smart, Brian Kelly would like a word with James Franklin’s PR team

Since when is James Franklin a better coach than Kirby Smart or Brian Kelly?

College football has dozens of great coaches, including Penn State football’s James Franklin.

Franklin is now entering his seventh season as the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Before that, he had three unbelievable years leading the Vanderbilt Commodores. In his nine seasons as a Power 5 head coach, Franklin has gone 80-38 overall, 45-31 in conference play, has won 11 games three times and finished ranked in the top 25 of the final AP Poll on six occasions.

However, he is getting way too much love in this FOX College Football graphic of the best coaches in college football. They put him front and center with his arms crossed like he’s the top dog or something. While most of the guys on that graphic belong, where the heck are the Georgia Bulldogs’ Kirby Smart and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Brian Kelly? They belong there.

Kirby Smart, Brian Kelly are better Power 5 coaches than James Franklin.

If you look at the eight men on display in that graphic, five have earned their spots up there without any debate whatsoever: Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Dabo Swinney of the Clemson Tigers, Ed Orgeron of the LSU Tigers, Lincoln Riley of the Oklahoma Sooners and Mack Brown now back with the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Saban, Swinney and Oregon have won College Football Playoff National Championships in the last three years. Riley has made the College Football Playoff every year he’s been the head coach of Oklahoma. Brown had won a national title at his old Texas Longhorns post in 2005 and played for another in the old BCS system in 2009. He’s already got UNC humming entering year two.

As for the debatable inclusions, Franklin is joined by Mario Cristobal of the Oregon Ducks and Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Admittedly, these are all highly questionable. While we like all three head coaches and the jobs they’ve done, they haven’t done what Smart has in four years at Georgia or what Kelly has done in 10 years at Notre Dame or since 1991 for that matter.

Day may only be entering his second year leading Ohio State, but he won the Big Ten last year, reached the College Football Playoff and came up one play short of playing for a national championship. Two of his star players were Heisman Trophy finalists in quarterback Justin Fields and defensive end Chase Young. It’s only a one-year sample size, but it’s a darn good one.

Cristobal is entering his third season as the full-time Oregon head coach and his ninth as a Division I head coach after a six-year run at Florida International in his native Miami. In parts of three seasons, Cristobal is 21-7 overall and 13-5 in Pac-12 play at Oregon. The Ducks went 9-4 in 2018 and 12-2 last fall, culminating in a top-five final ranking in the AP Poll. He’s getting there.

As for Smart, he’s 44-12 in four years leading his alma mater. The Dawgs have gone 25-7 in SEC play. They have won the SEC East three years in a row, won the SEC in 2017, made the College Football Playoff in 2017 and nearly won a title that year. In the last two years, Georgia has played in the Sugar Bowl and hasn’t been ranked lower than No. 7 in the final AP Poll since 2017.

Now for Kelly. He’s officially 71-36 in 10 years at Notre Dame with 12 wins and wins vacated from the 2012 and 2013 NCAA seasons. Outside of a dreadful 4-8 season in 2016, the Irish have been to a bowl nine times and finished ranked in the top-25 on six occasions. The Irish played for the 2012 BCS National Championship and reached the 2018 College Football Playoff under his watch.

While it’s understandable to reach more demographics with these graphics, to not have two top-eight coaches in college football on them in Smart and Kelly is a bit head-scratching. If you really wanted to, you could argue for guys like Dan Mullen of the Florida Gators, Gus Malzahn of the Auburn Tigers or even Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They’ve accomplished a lot.

Though Franklin is a heck of a coach, he hasn’t accomplished what Smart or Kelly have thus far.

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