6 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

He went 64-36 in the Big 10

Bowl game wins:
Rose
Fiesta (2) 
Cotton 
CFP first round 

So 69 to start before a non-con P4 win. 

I think he deserved it today, but my point is the next coach will have truly unrealistic expectations. The next guy is following a coach that had 5 top 10 seasons in 9 years, CFP W's, big NYD bowl game wins and won a lot. 

It's NC or bust type hire, and when CFB is about to begin a 16 team playoff. 

 

If you have national championship aspirations, your record against top teams has to matter more than padding your win total against nobody. And that’s where Franklin’s resume gets exposed:

Under Franklin, Penn State is 15–30 vs ranked opponents.

Even worse: he’s 4–21 vs top 10 teams

Against top 5 teams, he’s nearly winless 1–15 

And within the Big Ten, his record vs Ohio State & Michigan is 4–16.

You can’t build a title contending program by treating games against elite competition as optional. If your coach can’t consistently beat top 15 or top 10 teams, you’re not competing for a playoff run, you’re hoping to sneak in.

So yes, when people point out Franklin’s wins, they should also point out how few of them came in the games that actually define elite programs.

Edited October 12, 2025Oct 12 by TexasLonghorns

 

IMO Franklin would be a great fit at Arkansas. 

 

Just now, TexasLonghorns said:

IMO Franklin would be a great fit at Arkansas. 

With a $50 large severance package, would you want to step in that sh!t show?

1 minute ago, Oldest Horn said:

With a $50 large severance package, would you want to step in that sh!t show?

What’s he have to lose? Don’t know the details of his buyout and if taking another job impacts that…if it does, then yeah I wouldn’t, haha. 

7 minutes ago, THookem said:

 

some texas donor should add to penn st's offer for elko just for giggles

6 minutes ago, TexasLonghorns said:

If you have national championship aspirations, your record against top teams has to matter more than padding your win total against nobody. And that’s where Franklin’s resume gets exposed:

Under Franklin, Penn State is 15–30 vs ranked opponents.

Even worse: he’s 4–21 vs top 10 teams

Against top 5 teams, he’s nearly winless 1–15 

And within the Big Ten, his record vs Ohio State & Michigan is 4–16.

You can’t build a title contending program by treating games against elite competition as optional. If your coach can’t consistently beat top 15 or top 10 teams, you’re not competing for a playoff run, you’re hoping to sneak in.

So yes, when people point out Franklin’s wins, they should also point out how few of them came in the games that actually define elite programs.

Again, not arguing he didn't deserve it. 

What I'm saying, once again, is the next coach will have truly unrealistic expectations. It has nothing to do with Franklin. 

It's the nature of the beast. 

Reality is this for Steve Sarkisian at Texas a nature of the beast conversation:

Say Texas goes 9-3 this season and misses the playoff. And say Texas goes 9-3 in 2026 and misses the playoff. 

At least 50%, if not 65-70% of the Texas fan base would be ready to move and go get the next guy. 

It's a NC or bust expectation that will lead to many coaching failures because of a 16 team playoff on the way. NC's are going to be more difficult than ever to win. 

14 minutes ago, THookem said:

 

I don't think this will happen, but it sure would be hilarious. 

4 minutes ago, FootLaw said:

I don't think this will happen, but it sure would be hilarious. 

Agree. Texas A&M is a better job in todays environment of CFB IMO. That would be a bad move for Elko. He's got everything (conference, NIL and recruiting georgraphys) he needs to be a playoff team/contender right now. 

Who had Franklin being fired mid season on their bingo card 

8 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Again, not arguing he didn't deserve it. 

What I'm saying, once again, is the next coach will have truly unrealistic expectations. It has nothing to do with Franklin. 

It's the nature of the beast. 

Reality is this for Steve Sarkisian at Texas a nature of the beast conversation:

Say Texas goes 9-3 this season and misses the playoff. And say Texas goes 9-3 in 2026 and misses the playoff. 

At least 50%, if not 65-70% of the Texas fan base would be ready to move and go get the next guy. 

It's a NC or bust expectation that will lead to many coaching failures because of a 16 team playoff on the way. NC's are going to be more difficult than ever to win. 

Thats right!! That’s exactly why being able to beat ranked teams matters. You don’t win national championships or even survive in a 16 team playoff without proving you can consistently beat top 15 and top 10 opponents and Franklin hasn’t shown he can do that. Again, good on Penn State for finally seeing this. 

Very true! Franklin and Sark both have plenty of wins, but look at the records that actually count: Sark is 13–13 vs ranked, 4–8 vs top-10, 1–6 vs top-5. Franklin is 15–30 vs ranked, 4–21 vs top-10. Those aren’t championship level numbers, especially in a 16 team playoff, you basically have no chance. 

The playoff is only going to expose that even more. It’s not about “unrealistic expectations,” it’s about finally meeting real ones. If you can’t beat elite teams regularly, you’re not a contender,  you’re just padding your record.

2 minutes ago, Longhornfrenzy said:

Who had Franklin being fired mid season on their bingo card 

I did, if Penn State lost to teams like UCLA and Northwestern.  This was a last dance type of season for Penn State.

1 minute ago, Longhornfrenzy said:

Who had Franklin being fired mid season on their bingo card 

Think CFB, while in the best place for fans than ever before because of 12 and soon 16 team playoff, is about to enter a vicious cycle for coaches. 

Expectations are going to be out of control, NIL will breed more broken locker rooms when things get iffy early in seasons, portal is going to make for more college basketball like football teams that take longer to gel, etc... 

4 minutes ago, justwinbaby said:

I did, if Penn State lost to teams like UCLA and Northwestern.  This was a last dance type of season for Penn State.

I should have said before the season started 😁

4 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Think CFB, while in the best place for fans than ever before because of 12 and soon 16 team playoff, is about to enter a vicious cycle for coaches. 

Expectations are going to be out of control, NIL will breed more broken locker rooms when things get iffy early in seasons, portal is going to make for more college basketball like football teams that take longer to gel, etc... 

Agreed.

24 minutes ago, TexasLonghorns said:

What’s he have to lose? Don’t know the details of his buyout and if taking another job impacts that…if it does, then yeah I wouldn’t, haha. 

It’s probably a zero sum game. Anything he makes coaching will likely offset his severance. 

1 minute ago, TexasLonghorns said:

Thats right!! That’s exactly why being able to beat ranked teams matters. You don’t win national championships or even survive in a 16 team playoff without proving you can consistently beat top 15 and top 10 opponents and Franklin hasn’t shown he can do that. Again, good on Penn State for finally seeing this. 

Very true! Franklin and Sark both have plenty of wins, but look at the records that actually count: Sark is 13–13 vs ranked, 4–8 vs top-10, 1–6 vs top-5. Franklin is 15–30 vs ranked, 4–21 vs top-10. Those aren’t championship level numbers, especially in a 16 team playoff, you basically have no chance. 

The playoff is only going to expose that even more. It’s not about “unrealistic expectations,” it’s about finally meeting real ones. If you can’t beat elite teams regularly, you’re not a contender,  you’re just padding your record.

That's unrealistic for me. We just have a difference of opinion. 

If the CFP 12 team playoff has been around the last nine years, Penn State would have been to 4-5 playoffs. And it still wouldn't be enough. 

NC or bust mentality will lead to plenty more failure than success, but it's the nature of the beast. 

Seven programs have won NC's since 2011. Of the 15 titles, nine were won by four coaches. 

Now we enter the 12 and soon to be 16 team playoff. I'll be interested to see how playoff appearances change the expectations in the future. 

Winning an NC is extremely difficult. It's not a given, even for the blue bloods now due to the portal and NIL. 

If a fan base is NC or bust, 95% or more of fan bases will be in a never satisfied vicious circle. 

 

Just now, Gerry Hamilton said:

That's unrealistic for me. We just have a difference of opinion. 

If the CFP 12 team playoff has been around the last nine years, Penn State would have been to 4-5 playoffs. And it still wouldn't be enough. 

NC or bust mentality will lead to plenty more failure than success, but it's the nature of the beast. 

Seven programs have won NC's since 2011. Of the 15 titles, nine were won by four coaches. 

Now we enter the 12 and soon to be 16 team playoff. I'll be interested to see how playoff appearances change the expectations in the future. 

Winning an NC is extremely difficult. It's not a given, even for the blue bloods now due to the portal and NIL. 

If a fan base is NC or bust, 95% or more of fan bases will be in a never satisfied vicious circle. 

 

It’s not NC or bust. Penn St is a blue blood, and they’re the only team of relevance in a populous, football crazy state (much like Oh St). Yet they’ve been a perpetual third fiddle to Mich and Oh St. He finally got them in last year as a beneficiary of the 12 team format. This year was supposed to be it, and it was an absolute disaster. This program wasn’t going to improve. If this happens in Sark’s 12 year he’ll be gone too. Now he’s got 50 million reasons to take a break and reassess. 

Irony of Penn State looking at Matt Rhule to replace Franklin---is he has lost every game at Nebraska when he plays a ranked team

10 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

That's unrealistic for me. We just have a difference of opinion. 

If the CFP 12 team playoff has been around the last nine years, Penn State would have been to 4-5 playoffs. And it still wouldn't be enough. 

NC or bust mentality will lead to plenty more failure than success, but it's the nature of the beast. 

Seven programs have won NC's since 2011. Of the 15 titles, nine were won by four coaches. 

Now we enter the 12 and soon to be 16 team playoff. I'll be interested to see how playoff appearances change the expectations in the future. 

Winning an NC is extremely difficult. It's not a given, even for the blue bloods now due to the portal and NIL. 

If a fan base is NC or bust, 95% or more of fan bases will be in a never satisfied vicious circle. 

 

I agree that it's difficult to win a NC, however not so sure about extremely difficult.  Someone will win it every year.  The formula to win it though, has changed. 

No longer is it the stack your team, get a really soft schedule, win the couple of "difficult" games on your schedule so that you're highly ranked and put into the championship game.

Now, it's how can you get to the CFP and stay relatively healthy enough that you can essentially outlast all the other teams.  You have to be a good team, but just as important, you have to have enough solid depth that there's not a drop off if someone goes down.  We saw how much of a different Wisner and Malik Muhammad was for Texas.  I think this is another big reason why Sark went out and got Caldwell.  Gotta have insurance for every position.

 

We live in a time where 40-50% of Kansas fans want Bill Self gone. He's won 2 NC's, but has early flame outs in the NCAA Tournament. 

75% of UConn fans wanted Danny Hurley fired after first two seasons when he didn't make the NCAA Tournament.

On the Texas basketball side... the expectation is Sean Miller has to get Texas to a Final Four for his tenure to be success by many. Texas basketball has been to one Final Four since 1947. He could do very well and get to two Elite Eight's in the next 7-8 years, it won't be enough for a lot of fans even though Texas has very near zero history of being a Final Four program. 

But with the $$$ these guys make now a days, it amps up the expectations even more - even when they are unrealistic. 

I'm not crying for coaches making 5-10 mill to be clear, but it's just where college athletics is right now, and will only get worse in the future IMO. Coaching salaries and NIL have hit the accelerator faster than Georgia football players

6 minutes ago, Oldest Horn said:

It’s not NC or bust. Penn St is a blue blood, and they’re the only team of relevance in a populous, football crazy state (much like Oh St). Yet they’ve been a perpetual third fiddle to Mich and Oh St. He finally got them in last year as a beneficiary of the 12 team format. This year was supposed to be it, and it was an absolute disaster. This program wasn’t going to improve. If this happens in Sark’s 12 year he’ll be gone too. Now he’s got 50 million reasons to take a break and reassess. 

What I'm saying is it will be for the next coach. It's absolutely set up that way because Franklin had better success than many coaches, but couldn't get over the hump. 

Now the next hire will be super duper hyped up and paid 11-12 million. He will be "the guy" to take Penn State to the next level and back to the JoePa NC days. And if he only delivers 11-3 and a couple of playoff appearances in his first four years, at least 50% of the fan base will be ready to kick him to the curb too.

5 minutes ago, THookem said:

 

Why would Adidas want this move?