BREAKING #Vandy coach James Franklin is expected to be the next head coach at #PennState, per source— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) January 9, 2014
What do you think of the hire? How do you think it affects our recruiting efforts in PA, and PSU's recruiting in Virginia?
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I just had an SEC fan try to convince me that Vandy was a better job. WTH.
Mad props to Franklin for what he did at Vandy, but c'mon.
People like that are why I convinced my self to actually cheer for FSU against Auburn....it was tough
Me too. Especially when they did their annoying chop after a 3 yard gain by Tre Mason.
Let the hyperventilating over Bud to Vandy begin. Yawn!
That's just the SEC mentality.
To them, being kicked around at Vandy is better than getting kicked around at PSu.
As and Auburn fan, the coaching vacancy at Vanderbilt is somewhat worrisome. Seems like a perfect landing spot for Chad Morris or even Cutcliffe from Duke as a dark horse.
In terms of Franklin and Penn State, I think it's a fantastic fit and Franklin is a fantastic coach.
FWIW, I really don't see Cutcliffe leaving Duke. He's just too old. People won't want to hire him just to have him retire in a few years. They want young, exciting hires, not someone who took 5 years or so to be successful at Duke. Not saying he's not a fantastic coach, but to the untrained eye (aka: the immense population of stupid that exists in college football), he's not a terrific hire. I fully expect to see him finish out his career at Duke, rather successfully too.
Considering Vandy's AD targeted James Franklin and Gus Malzhan three years ago for the HC job, I'd say a young hire is likely.
Thus Chad Morris is a likely hire to me. Cutcliffe was just interesting to think about/consider.
Bud Foster was also targeted, but he canceled his interview because it conflicted with a recruiting visit.
You have to think that sort of 'team-first' mentality would impress any AD, and I'm sure Vandy is going to at least reach out to him again.
Cutcliffe is a great coach, but what's the point of hiring a coach you know is only going to be there for 5 years? Unless he brings a stellar assistant with him? Cutcliffe is a great coach, but would be an OK hire at his age. That's not immense stupidity, that's trying to make the best investment possible.
Let me clarify, because I agree 100% with everything you posted here. There are some less-than-insightful people out there that would say he's a bad hire because he's a bad coach because he took X number of years to be good at Duke. Or even that he was successful at Duke in a weak ACC. Point is, like you said, he's a great coach, too old be be a great hire.
He is younger than Saban...
This isn't a valid argument. Saban is arguably the best college coach in the nation. He's is household name in every state. He could immediately attract blue chip players and promising assistants at any school. Also, given his coaching tree, it's fair to assume that one of his assistants could take over once he retires/leaves. Cutcliffe is known and respected in the ACC, but hardly known elsewhere. How many NCs does he have as a head coach? How many NFL players has he produced in the past 5 years? No disrespect to DC, but he's no where near the quality hire as Saban is.
Cutcliff is very well known in the SEC / southeast overall. He coached the Manning brothers, and Eli basically followed him to Ole Miss.
UT fans in particular really really miss him.
Yea, much like how Loeffler uses Brady, Henne, and Tebow on the recruiting trail, I'm pretty sure Cutcliff using Peyton and Eli to his advantage. If he had the right mixture of OC and DC (young, energetic, up-and-coming stars), he could probably recruit very well. That said, I think he's not interested in getting into the the circus of recruiting 5-stars (except QB).
I was just mainly surprised that he was younger than Saban.
Cutcliffe also has a history of heart problems.
So does Urban Meyer
Cutcliffe didn't invent his heart problems to get out of coaching at Florida. His are real.
Excellent, excellent fit for Franklin - A Philadelphia native, he has the ability to motivate and bring out the best in his players. Plus - he's got at least two years to work with Christian Hackenberg, who has the potential to be a No. 1 Draft pick and future NFL franchise QB. Not to mention, he is exactly what PSU needs to continue to move forward.
Bleacher Reports Article.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1912176-james-franklin-reportedly-wil...
Excited to see him in Happy Valley. Go PSU!
Because you're Vandy and whoever you hire will only be around for so long. If you hire a young guy like Franklin, if he's successful then he will be stolen by a bigger program.
Franklin is a good coach and a good hire for PSU. O'Brien was a good coach and a good hire for PSU. When it comes to the "Impact on our recruiting there and their recuriting here" it feels like a wash to me.
Here we go with all the "Bud to Vandy" rumors.
One small thought: the players that PSU will be signing this year, may not have to deal with the bowl ban. There has been a push to get PSU back into the bowls and it is likely that 2014 will be their last year of the bowl ban (NCAA continues to monitor progress and said it will reevaluate PSU as time passes). This means that if kids are redshirted for 2014 - they'll play in a bowl for all 4 years or 3 if they play right away. Big selling point for PSU moving foward.
Meh, I could care either way who get's what job. The biggest thing for me is now any recruit who may have been thinking about decommiting from PSU for VT will probably stay commited now. Same with Louisville too.
A couple more interesting names for the Vandy job (I think Chad Morris is the most likely to get an offer first FWIW):
Mack Brown: He's from Tennessee. Might not want his coaching career to be over just yet.
Gene Chizik: I realize he had issues at Auburn (Auburn fan here), but he's still got a good defensive mindset. Pair that with a good offensive mind and hope he learns from past mistakes. Really a fallback option after Morris and others.
This Auburn season is all the proof anyone needs to never give Gene Chizik a head coaching job again
Not disagreeing haha. I still think he's a good guy, but HC may not be his thing. DC would be an interesting spot for him to end up.
obviously he already has recruiting connections in dc/md/va, but psu already gets plenty of kids from the area so it may be a wash.
While I don't think we need to panic about the recruiting implications, I'm sure our coaches realize the importance of getting the offense back on track before PSU's sanctions are lifted.
Agree. Let's say a highly touted offensive player (for the matter of discussion - a wide receiver) was between VT and PSU, Franklin takes over with Hackenberg at the helm, I'd have to say player x chooses PSU (based solely on football opportunity).
As far as recruiting goes, Larry Johnson leaving will only hurt PSU.
You know....we could use a RB's coach....
I doubt he'd leave PSU if he didn't have another job locked up.
That's not Larry Johnson the RB. That's his dad who coaches the defensive line.
I assumed he was the RB's coach, should have looked that up.
He also happens to be Nnadi's primary recruiter for PSU, according to 247.
If that is true that means Nnadi's top recruiters from PSU and tOSU are now gone from their respective schools!
Happily, yes. Unhappily, the staff of our biggest competitors for Nnadi's services, FSU, remains intact. Alas.
It's going to be VT or FSU.
Interesting little tidbit about Franklin's contract. There is no buyout, but whoever hires him has to pay for the 31 million dollar indoor practice facility he asked for.
http://vandypride.com/james-franklin-wont-be-leaving-vanderbilt-anytime-...
Nice catch. It says that they would have to "pay off" the upgrades including the new indoor field and the new turf 2 years ago. I would assume the turf is paid off but I wonder how much is left on the new indoor field. Also I wonder how they calculate that remainder.
For example, if the 31 million was required brand new but they have since approved and raised 25 million of the money then the amount due would only be 6 million. That's a lot but certainly nothing Penn St cannot pay for. I'll snoop around some more and see if can find how much has been raised so far.
As Franklin's contract is private it's very hard to find details but from what I read on Vandy message boards and comments about Franklin's extension is that the buyout was 20 million in 1rst year of extension and then would go down year by year after that.
Since the extension was in Dec 2012 the first year has come and passed, so now it would seem the most Penn St would pay for the buyout is 11 million. If #sources are true of course.
Latest is that Franklin is going to get $4.5mil annually from Penn State but the article makes no mention of his separation costs from Vanderbilt.
What do you guys think of this. It talks about an online petition started by a PSU professor to stop them from hiring Franklin because a BuzzFeed article in September alleged he told a player to delete a video incriminating players in a rape scandal.
To his credit the Attorney General has this to sayWe just wanted to state clearly that theres no evidence whatsoever where Coach Franklin was involved in any way in the cover-up or has done anything inappropriate." I grew up a PSU fan so I'm hoping he is indeed clean (and I'm sure PSU vetted him thoroughly) but in the wake of the Sandusky scandal it makes you wonder if they thought twice about hiring him.
http://onwardstate.com/2014/01/10/professor-starts-petition-against-the-...
There is no reason to read anymore after that.
*Edit: emphasis mine.
Yea, the only reason I gave it any mention is because Onward State (a pretty good PSU blog) wrote the article about one of its own professor's pettition