James Franklin Appreciation Thread

[IRISHDODGER]

No way they're paying the Franklin buyout AND paying Ruhle more than the $9m a year he's getting from big red

I don’t think they will either. It’d kill their NIL

 

[MPClinton22]

Hey James, maybe you should have pushed back against adding all these west coast teams and blowing up CFB as we know it. May have save you this L after all the travel.

What a fucking loser

 

[ab2cmiller]

LOL

 

[ColinKSU]

We got lucky having Freeman on staff when Kelly left. I am not sure if Penn State will be as lucky when their version of Kelly leaves. They might end up with their Bob Davie and the current landscape of college football is much less friendly to them.

The version of Notre Dame that Kelly left would have been *unbelievably* cooked if it didn’t have Freeman ready to step in. They didn’t have the infrastructure in place it needed to compete.

I think he’s helped modernize the program in the year since then, but *whooooo* buddy, that’d have been a rough stretch.

 

[Irish Norseman]

The version of Notre Dame that Kelly left would have been *unbelievably* cooked if it didn’t have Freeman ready to step in. They didn’t have the infrastructure in place it needed to compete.

I think he’s helped modernize the program in the year since then, but *whooooo* buddy, that’d have been a rough stretch.

Imagine if we hired Luke Fickell. This board would be on fire. And I would have zero TVs in my house.

 

[ColinKSU]

Imagine if we hired Luke Fickell. This board would be on fire. And I would have zero TVs in my house.

It would have been real bad. It’s a miracle it worked out like this.

 

[ThePiombino]

I love how Freeman never makes excuses. It’s just the right way to handle losses.

Was just thinking how last season, throughout all the injuries, Freeman never allowed that to be an excuse. Took the team to a championship game regardless. Also, not too many teams traveling more than Notre Dame. Franklin is such a Grade-A bitch. I would say it has to be hard to root for a team led by him, but most PSU fans have observed exist in their own reality.

 

[arrowryan]

Franklin has always been a lame duck head coach. Basically the same style coach as Brian Kelly.

I don’t know how anyone would want to play for that guy.

 

[T Town Tommy]

90% of schools would love Franklin’s yearly results. Problem is the 10% expect championships. Franklin is never going to get to that 10%. Penn St, if they decide to move on, may be staring down at their 20 year purgatory. To which, would be just fine by me.

 

[KPENN]

90% of schools would love Franklin’s yearly results. Problem is the 10% expect championships. Franklin is never going to get to that 10%. Penn St, if they decide to move on, may be staring down at their 20 year purgatory. To which, would be just fine by me.

BK and James Franklin

 

[KPENN]

Also, I saw on twitter talk about their RB’s regressing. I wonder what happened there? 🤔

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

So - Freeman making a wishlist for transfers and decommits to flip?
He's going to poach this school

 

[Huntr]

Like BK, it would prob be better for both parties if he moved on. He's owed something like $48 mill, so he's not getting let go this year or next.

But, maybe don't extend him anymore. It's never going to happen for him there. He won a lot of games at Penn State, so they shouldn't hate him, but this is it. If they want to win a natty, they need to make a change at some point.

I just feel like a school has to take the chance on a new coach when the old one has clearly plateaued, if you really want to seriously compete for a championship.

 

[irishff1014]

Like BK, it would prob be better for both parties if he moved on. He's owed something like $48 mill, so he's not getting let go this year or next.

But, maybe don't extend him anymore. It's never going to happen for him there. He won a lot of games at Penn State, so they shouldn't hate him, but this is it. If they want to win a natty, they need to make a change at some point.

I just feel like a school has to take the chance on a new coach when the old one has clearly plateaued, if you really want to seriously compete for a championship.

I get this but who is proven and going to do better?

 

[Huntr]

I get this but who is proven and going to do better?

IDK. Did you know Freeman was going to be what he is when he was UC's DC in 2020?

Can't face the future unafraid. Otherwise you're staring at Kirk Ferentz on the sideline for a 150 years, grateful for the crumbs you're allowed.

 

[irishff1014]

IDK. Did you know Freeman was going to be what he is when he was UC's DC in 2020?

Can't face the future unafraid. Otherwise you're staring at Kirk Ferentz on the sideline for a 150 years, grateful for the crumbs you're allowed.

I get what you are saying. But you also risk going backwards.

 

[stlnd01]

I get what you are saying. But you also risk going backwards.

There’s always risk. Though Penn State have some built-in advantages that should keep the floor from ever being too low.

Mostly they have to decide what they want to be. If they’re fine being pretty good, Franklin has proven he can do that. But if they seriously want to win a title, they probably need more than he can bring.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

To be fair, JF has won a playoff game, 3 NY6 games, and didn’t get boatraced in his NY6 losses.

If forced to choose between JF and BK, I’m taking JF every time.


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[Huntr]

To be fair, JF has won a playoff game, 3 NY6 games, and didn’t get boatraced in his NY6 losses.

If forced to choose between JF and BK, I’m taking JF every time.


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They do have a high floor with him, definitely, and maybe they are happy enough being in that spot.

But, that's also the ceiling, IMO.

 

[Bane]

To be fair, JF has won a playoff game, 3 NY6 games, and didn’t get boatraced in his NY6 losses.

If forced to choose between JF and BK, I’m taking JF every time.


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He won two playoff games but the added context of the opponents makes that a little less impressive. Franklin is a better recruiter than BK and is able to get better overall talent more consistently than BK. Forced to choose between the two? I'd reevaluate how much I really like CFB.

 

[Bane]

I get what you are saying. But you also risk going backwards.

As a fan of a program in a similar conundrum just 4 years ago, I'd take the risk than forever being stuck in the Groundhog's Day of "good, but not elite." Sure, we at the time, and PSU fans now, should be grateful that they can basically chalk in 10-12 wins a season every single season, but people don't work like that. You adjust your expectations. That 2017-2021 run was always going to be the most we could expect from BK and that was really good, but I pull for my alma mater to be happy with solid regular seasons, I cheer for ND because it can compete for titles.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Aside from Franklin, imagine paying what you did for Knowles, and UCLA hangs 42 on you.

UCLA had 10 and 14 pts against New Mexico and Northwestern, respectively.


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[IrishSteelhead]

As a fan of a program in a similar conundrum just 4 years ago, I'd take the risk than forever being stuck in the Groundhog's Day of "good, but not elite." Sure, we at the time, and PSU fans now, should be grateful that they can basically chalk in 10-12 wins a season every single season, but people don't work like that. You adjust your expectations. That 2017-2021 run was always going to be the most we could expect from BK and that was really good, but I pull for my alma mater to be happy with solid regular seasons, I cheer for ND because it can compete for titles.

Penn State made a LEGIT run last year, and many of their fans still look at the season like it was a colossal failure.

If they think it gets better than being that close and doing it at a competitive level, then I don’t know what to tell them.

Look at alot of us here. Our season ended with confetti falling on the other team, and we still romanticize the ride like we banged a supermodel.

It doesn’t make you a doomer/loser to enjoy a fun ride and understand if your name isn’t Alabama, Ohio State or Georgia, you should not expect a title every season.


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[Dale]

Penn State made a LEGIT run last year

Did they? They lost their three toughest games. Their best wins were wins against a G5, a glorified G5 and Illinois.

What was the last Franklin win where you can truly hang your hat and say “yeah that’s it. That’s what the money is for”?

 

[NDMatt91]

Penn State made a LEGIT run last year, and many of their fans still look at the season like it was a colossal failure.

I think the reason they're mad is because they had, by far, the easiest road. They played the 2 weakest teams and they blew two leads to a ND team that had numerous key players that didn't play or gutted out the game but were nowhere near 100%.

 

[Dale]

The last win Franklin can hang his hat on is the 2022 Rose Bowl against Utah.

Seriously. You need to give your fanbase moments they remember. PSU fans don’t have any.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Did they? They lost their three toughest games. Their best wins were home wins against a G5, a glorified G5 and Illinois.

True.

It was legit based on the way the waves broke for them, not by merit.

They were essentially a play away from being in the natty while maybe a dozen better teams watched from home.


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[Bane]

Penn State made a LEGIT run last year, and many of their fans still look at the season like it was a colossal failure.

If they think it gets better than being that close and doing it at a competitive level, then I don’t know what to tell them.

Look at alot of us here. Our season ended with confetti falling on the other team, and we still romanticize the ride like we banged a supermodel.

It doesn’t make you a doomer/loser to enjoy a fun ride and understand if your name isn’t Alabama, Ohio State or Georgia, you should not expect a title every season.


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Yeah but I get where they’re coming from. They lost to the only 3 legit teams they played all year and their wins in the CFP were SMU and a G5 team.

We romanticize our run because we opened the season beating aTm on the road and then beat Indiana, UGA, and PSU on the way to the NCG appearance in which we were able to drag OSU into deep water late into the 4th.

Objectively we had a way better season than PSU. Also, MF was in year 3 and we fold our memories of last year into the hope of a brighter future. JF is well into his tenure at PSU and last year was just a slightly advanced version of basically every year he’s had there. He could have done that any given year he’s been there if the playoffs were 12 teams.

 

[IrishLax]

Thought this was a woman at first, live, ngl.

 

[IrishLax]