James Franklin or Jim Harbaugh? Who has the edge?
The biggest intangible that we haven’t discussed yet is Franklin was taking over in an era when Penn State was recovering from some of the most significant sanctions in NCAA history.
Franklin’s turnaround to a conference championship in just three years (and likely deserving of a playoff berth) was nothing short of wildly exceeding expectations. That’s never been said about Harbaugh.
Harbaugh was something of the opposite, with his only bowl win coming in 2014 with most of Brady Hoke’s recruits.
Both coaches have done well recruiting, but until 2022, neither have had that recruiting class you write home about it. Assuming Franklin stays and the recruits stay, his 2022 recruiting class will be the best either coach has ever seen.
Given the recruiting upswing, the harder starting circumstances, and the singular Big Ten Championship, we gotta give the edge to the man running the Nittany Lions program over the man running the Wolverine program.