Penn State Football: James Franklin to USC rumors

James Franklin has had his name linked to a possible opening at a prestigious football program. 

Penn State football is coming off back-to-back wins that has put them back in the conversation for a New Year’s Six Bowl. Since arriving at Penn State, head coach James Franklin has brought back major respect to the program and took home a Pinstripe Bowl victory in 2014, a Big Ten Championship in 2016, Woody Hayes Coach of The Year in 2016 and a Fiesta Bowl in 2017 … and now he is supposedly an option to replace USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton.

Of course, this is the time of year when these things start to pop up. Franklin to USC is strictly a rumor right now with no real merit. However, since finding success at Penn State, Franklin will likely here his name come up whenever there are openings around college football.

Don’t hit the panic button yet, but, could this really be true? College football reporters Bruce Feldman first threw the possibility of Franklin to Southern Cal on the podcast Dual Threat, with Ryen Russillo, and brought it up again Monday on his podcast The Audible.

It’s also important to remember that currently, USC is not even in the market for a new head coach.

The last time USC lost more than six games in regular season play was 2000, when Paul Hackett was the head coach. All signs are pointing towards the end for Helton. In his press conference, Franklin responded to the question of speculations about him and the USC job with the phrase, “I guess it’s that time of year where all that type of stuff happens.”

Franklin went on to say that the focus is on Maryland. Not the most reassuring statement. If the speculations were false, he would’ve come out with a statement strongly proving his commitment to the program, not a cop-out, general “focusing on the game” statement.

What could really draw Franklin to USC other than weather, or a boat load of money? Speaking of money, Franklin makes $4.8 million per year with PSU; Helton is making $2.6 million at USC. It’s unlikely Franklin will get Nick Saban type money from Southern Cal.

Currently, Franklin’s Penn Statesquad is significantly better than USC, who ranks 94th in total offense. The Nitanny Lion’s recruiting class is also much better than USC’s.  As of now, The Trojans do not have a five-star recruit in their 2019 class.

Coach Franklin was right when he said the focus should be on Saturday’s game against Maryland. He failed to show his commitment by not offering a stronger answer to the speculations, but fans cannot get too hung up on these rumors. For now, Franklin’s the coach of the Penn State football program, and if the deciding factor is money, it would be hard to believe that the university wouldn’t match an offer.

If Franklin does leave, he’s brought the program back to full strength and it would easily be the most lucrative job on the market and draw plenty of interest from top candidates. The real fear would be retaining the stellar recruiting class.