Florida’s James Franklin pursuit sent Ohio State and Michigan-coded reality check originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Florida Gators are scrambling for someone to help raise the program from the ashes of the now-over Billy Napier era and simultaneously keep his recruits while bringing on new ones during the next three months.
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It’s a tough job, but one the right guy can fill. Former Penn State Nittany Lions football coach James Franklin is one of the few out there who’s considered a good potential fit for several job openings this hiring cycle.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde sees Franklin as the top option on the market, though only if Clemson Tigers football coach Dabo Swinney doesn’t leave South Carolina.
On a somewhat related note, Franklin was never known to win the big one at Penn State, going 4-16 against the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines.
That has Forde wondering why Florida would be confident hiring him with the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide essentially serving the same caliber of challenge in any given year.
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“James Franklin (21) essentially put the Hot To Trot sign out on College GameDay on Saturday, announcing his interest in coaching again soon—like next season. The fired Penn State coach is ready to stick his head back into the sausage grinder instead of counting his tens of millions of dollars in severance pay,” Forde wrote.
“Franklin immediately becomes the most interesting coach on the market, one who would be an attractive candidate for seemingly every job but Florida. (If Franklin struggled to beat Ohio State and Michigan, what assurance would the Gators have that he could beat Georgia and Alabama?) Unless Dabo Swinney decides to leave Clemson, no other coach can slap down a résumé that shows he’s consistently won 10 games a year at the power-conference level.”
Napier was far less qualified for the UF job than Franklin, who has successful SEC experience as one of the few bright spots in the Vanderbilt Commodores’ football program’s history.
Franklin would be less of a gamble. His record against the best of the best is still a gamble on multiple levels, though. Franklin is a good coach, but those millions he’d be owed might not buy the kind of moments a fanbase truly craves deep down.
