The one thing that cost James Franklin his job at Penn State was failing to show up in the big moments and big games. Well, after his exclusive interview on ESPN’s College GameDay, he can add at least one big win to his resume. He’s always been good at damage control. Just a week after he was fired at Penn State, he managed to somehow make Penn State look wrong for letting him go.
We all know it was time for him to move on from Penn State, but somehow, it doesn’t feel right. His ability to relate to people is going to earn him another coaching job. He spent nearly 10 minutes during his GameDay interview hinting at how important coaching is to him and the role it plays in his life.
Franklin is desperate to win a national championship, and he even said he thought he’d do it at Penn State. Now that he can't, he's determined to do it with his next program. Thanks to his remarkable job with damage control, it won’t take long for him to land a job, whether it’s with a big program or a smaller program looking to take that next step.
Did James Franklin just talk himself into another coaching job a week after getting fired?
Any athletic director thinking about making a coaching change who watched the Franklin interview just got another candidate added to their interview pool. Franklin knows how to work the media atmosphere with Saturday’s masterclass near flawless. It could be what earns him another job rather quickly.
But games aren’t won during media press conferences, they’re won on Saturdays with gameplans and execution. Don’t let Franklin’s likable personality sway you from why he got fired at Penn State. That said, it’s always good to have a likable coach on staff, though it sometimes makes it hard to make those tough decisions.
If Franklin talks himself into a job, getting fired might be one of the best things to happen to him. He could have ended up wasting more time at Penn State, knowing it was always going to be an uphill battle. Regardless if Penn State reached the CFP every year, they struggled in the big conference games. That could ultimately follow him to his next gig.
Don’t let James Franklin’s likability distract you from his biggest problem
Franklin may be likable, but remember why he got fired from Penn State: He struggled in the brightest of moments. That means as much as he can talk a big game about wanting to win a national championship, his track record shows he may just not be the coach to do so. The Nittany Lions were within arms reach of a championship last season and now they’re lost.
It feels like every year they are a win or two away from playing for a national championship, yet Franklin could never get them there. Why is that going to change with a new team? If he takes a job like Florida (if it becomes available), he’d have even more pressure to win at the national level.
If Franklin takes a lower tier job but in a big conference, the expectation is to win the games the team otherwise wouldn’t win and if he doesn’t, it would be repeating the cycle that cost him a job in Happy Valley.
What Franklin said during College GameDay is all good and the perfect response for a coach still grappling with being unemployed for the first time in decades. But he was fired for a reason and no PR expertise can salvage that.