Tennessee football: Would James Franklin leave Penn State for the Vols?

James Franklin is a head coach worth the Tennessee football program actively pursuing.

As the Tennessee football program looks to find its next head coach, the Vols could be targeting a guy who had tremendous success previously in the SEC East in James Franklin.

Being able to pry Franklin away from an outstanding job like Penn State will be a near impossible task for new athletic director Danny White to pull off. However, Franklin was an outstanding head coach during his three-year run with the Vanderbilt Commodores in the early 2010s. Going from Penn State to Tennessee is a lateral move in some ways, but getting back into the SEC is huge.

Will Tennessee succeed by taking a home-run cut to steal Franklin away?

If the Vols were to somehow land Franklin, it would be on par with the university being able to rip White away from Central Florida. Simply put, you are not going to get a better candidate than Franklin if you are Tennessee. Keep in mind that he has been linked to other top-tier jobs like the one previously open at Texas and the one that should be open but here we are at USC.

Would Franklin leave Penn State for Tennessee? That is highly unlikely because Franklin is a Pennsylvania native. Being able to lead his home state’s marquee program is a job you do not leave willingly. While he is not coaching at his alma mater, he might as well be. Tennessee may not be able to land him, but he is a candidate at least worth pursuing. It means Tennessee is trying.

While Tennessee may not steal Franklin away from Penn State, he is roughly what the Vols need.

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