James Franklin to FSU?
Seems to be some smoke building here. FSU might not be the blue blood that PSU is, but the ACC is way less competitive and Florida is a better recruiting region, and that’s Franklin’s forte.
I’m sure Rhule would be Penn State’s top candidate, as a former Nittany Lion, but he had NFL offers last cycle, and there will be more coming this year for sure. Would be interesting if Franklin bolts for FSU after Rhule has taken an NFL job. Not sure who the target would become then. Maybe Matt Campbell.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:20 AM ^
Unless Frames thinks he's going to be fired in the next 2 years, he should stay at PSU. Good move by his agent though.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:25 AM ^
Why? So he can he have his minimum of 2 losses every year, and share a division with two other blue bloods with excellent coaches, and recruit in Ohio State’s backyard? So he can look forward to the coming road trips to Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Iowa? Why not take the path of least resistance to more wins with a better recruiting area?
November 21st, 2019 at 10:31 AM ^
Also, FSU doesn't even pretend to be an academic institution. He wouldn't have to pay lip service to any of that and could get away with anything. PSU would be much less likely to look the other way on oooooooooooh right I forgot.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
Yeah. I don't know that Penn State ever has players they can't get in, but I know Florida State doesn't lol.
November 22nd, 2019 at 8:35 AM ^
FSU has proved they'll fire coaches in less than 2 years. Unless they can give him a good reason for that off the record, it makes taking a job there a risky proposition.
November 22nd, 2019 at 10:28 AM ^
Penn State is a worse job than FSU in almost every conceivable way and its fanbase is irrational enough that they will be furious that they aren't beating Ohio every year. 2 years of Franklin having the best teams Penn State's fielded since the 90s and they'll still be on his ass about it. You're better off resetting at another power job that now has much more realistic expectations because they're all mad at the last guy.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:21 AM ^
Moorehead to PSU, then. Dude would crush it there. He's a Northeast guy.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:31 AM ^
Why do you say that? He looks to be on track to getting canned at Miss St. He looks like he might be peter principled as a HC
November 21st, 2019 at 10:24 AM ^
This seems very remote and little chance of happening.
I saw they were interested in Brian Kelly too.
Do the paywalled articles say something?
This just does not seem likely at all and not worthy of thinking about what the B10 east would look like in that event.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:29 AM ^
If you could guarantee it today, I would bet a majority of PSU fans would trade Frames for Rhule.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:30 AM ^
If USC doesn't hire Rhule they deserve to suck. To bring that program out of the dumpster that Briles left it in is nothing short of a miracle.
If he can actually sell players on Waco I don't think he will have a problem selling Southern California.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Urban Meyer is more of a slam dunk than Rhule. Urban’s track record is absurd, despite the troubles that have followed him.
November 21st, 2019 at 2:46 PM ^
He's the only guarantee. You hire Meyer and you win titles, period.
November 21st, 2019 at 1:01 PM ^
This seems to be under the mistaken assumption that in college football recruiting - especially in Texas - you need to sell guys on a town. Incentives can be created in many other ways.
Baylor is a school that on repeated occasions has shown a willingness to abandon all pretense of integrity in pursuit of athletic glory.
Matt Rhule isnt an idiot. Dude didnt leave his geographic footprint to take over a hopeless situation. Baylor wants to win.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:40 AM ^
As a man in his mid forties, I can remember FSU dominance with some bad ass teams in the 80s and 90s. I consider them pretty close to a blue blood. Franklin would have a recruiting field day in the middle of a football hotbed selling great weather and palm trees. He would have a schedule with one ranked team all year. I think it would be a good move for him.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
Not sure why bolting for FSU now would be such a great move? Jimbo Fischer won a national title and bolted 3 years later! The University and Athletic Department are a mess and wouldn't give a coach that just won the national title things he was asking for. Fired Willie Taggart fast and the fan base still thinks it's the same day and age when they had 95 scholarships and 88 of them on special exceptions academically where they only had to maintain 6 credit hours to maintain eligibility!
Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and Florida are taking the top recruits and you have Miami taking what's left of the top tier recruits from you. Coming in the door is Franklin that coach to start out recruiting the home state schools and battle off the other three just dominating recruiting right now? Could be, but not without the University and AD fully committed, just ask Taggart.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
Fischer bolted because he knew he'd left the program in shambles. The culture was shit, the OL talent was absolutely atrocious, and the rest of the talent was nearly what FSU historically had. Nowhere near Clemson levels. He shouldn't have made a bowl game in his last year (he himself was actually 5-6, given he resigned before their bowl-eligibility-enabling win against Louisiana-Monroe), and he knew it was going to be several years before he could build it back up. Everything Taggert went through, Fischer would have had to endure at a similar level (maybe he wouldn't have been as bad, but he would have been bad given the state of that program).
Texas A&M showed up with more money, better facilities and commitment to winning, and much brighter immediate prospects for success. Didn't have to face the LOLs and risk that he couldn't rescue the mess that he made at FSU. This is why he left.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:43 AM ^
Why In the world would he leave penn state for FSU that is a step backwards. Someone explain. He is recruiting very well at penn state and has competed better than we have with Ohio state in the east.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:49 AM ^
Living in Florida might be preferable to living in Pennsylvania.
Also, Florida has much more fertile recruiting grounds.
Not saying he should leave, but there are reasons.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:22 AM ^
I feel like the Florida panhandle is just rural Pennsylvania but hot and with Alligators.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:41 AM ^
I mean once you leave the beach and resort areas, is there anything anywhere in Florida other than heat, humidity, stupidity, dated strip malls, and alligators?
November 21st, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
No! and I'm not even a beach guy, so you can imagine how attractive living anywhere in Florida is to me.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:55 AM ^
Florida State is a step back from Penn State? How many National Championships have the Seminoles won compared to Penn State? The weather is much better. He can recruit in Florida. He only has ONE program to worry about each year in Clemson. At PSU he has to play Ohio State and Michigan every year with a crossover like Wisconsin every so often. The B10 is much better than the ACC in football. If he assembles the right staff and recruits well which he will then the Noles can make a playoff run just about every year by just beating Clemson.
November 21st, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^
I agree with you on the acc competition but i am living in the now not we won in the 90s and had two good teams a few years ago. The state of the program right now is brutal
November 21st, 2019 at 11:21 AM ^
Just read the rest of the comments.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:29 AM ^
I mean, really. Did he actually think this wasn't what 80% of the comments were specifically about? I get that there were too many comments to read but maybe that's just a sign that you don't need to make the 75th comment on the thread. The most galling part is that he said "someone explain this to me." Perhaps that was just rhetorical.
I don't mind talking shit about the comment because I'm positive he won't read this.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
FSU will hire a proven coach this time around and it is an excellent job to have as you don't have to leave the state to find super star athletes. Fisher left it in shambles with his no discipline approach (which Taggert had to deal with). James Franklin would make sense at FSU and would do a great job.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:53 AM ^
why wouldn't PSU pursue Moorehead?
November 21st, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
Because he has has shown his true head coaching abilities in Starkville! Mississippi State should be much better and usually are than he has done.
November 21st, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
So who is the real Ed Orgeron? The guy at Ole Miss? Or the guy at LSU?
November 21st, 2019 at 3:53 PM ^
Ehhhh, before Dan Mullen, they were total garbage and had been the SEC doormat forever. Mullen is by far their most successful coach ever so it's hard to compare the two.
Moorhead's first season at 8-4 is better than like 90% of Miss St seasons ever. Maybe it was a Wile E Coyote season as they've struggled a little this season - even though a loss at Tennessee is the only iffy result - but they'll still probably make a bowl which is an accomplishment for that program.
November 21st, 2019 at 10:54 AM ^
love these threads, the speculation is fun, when does the flight watch app thing start?
November 21st, 2019 at 10:56 AM ^
psu is the better job right now.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:05 AM ^
Wasn't Urban going to go to PSU before the scandal broke? It'd be a perfect place to take revenge on OSU for "disrespecting him."
Also terrifying.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:11 AM ^
This sounds like Buckeye driven propaganda
November 21st, 2019 at 11:13 AM ^
Wouldn't you just leverage this for a raise at PSU? Plus, you've got that annoying song on ever other down... On the other hand, FSU does have this guy:
November 21st, 2019 at 11:23 AM ^
A Michigan Man!
November 21st, 2019 at 11:30 AM ^
In retrospect, maybe FSU is perfect for him. That is one mighty sad field goal for FSU.
November 21st, 2019 at 2:06 PM ^
What would frighten the Florida panhandle more: shirtless old guy or the book?
November 21st, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
I don't really get the "James Franklin is not a good coach" takes. The guy has been successful everywhere he has been, including freaking Vanderbilt. Sure, he's known to make dumb in-game decisions, that if that's your standard for 'not a good coach', there are no good coaches. Except that high school guy who always goes for it on 4th down.
As far as impact on Michigan, it's an easy plus if Franklin leaves. It's well worth the risk they get someone great. They may not. There definitely will be transition costs. They may lose some recruits and Franklin is a truly excellent recruiter. Assistant turnover, new playbooks, all that good stuff.
If I'm Franklin I'd want a boatload of money to go to FSU, though. That program is a hot mess and they appear to have zero patience.
November 21st, 2019 at 12:49 PM ^
Franklin's clearly a good recruiter and program manager, and that's like 90% of the job. I don't think he's that good at the other 10% (gameday coaching).
November 21st, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
If PSU picks up Rhule out of this, that's pretty bad news for Michigan. Otherwise, I'm kind of indifferent. I'm not as down on Frames as others are--he's clumsy in-game, but his staff sure seems to produce good gameplans and develop players well every year, so they're doing something right.
November 21st, 2019 at 12:19 PM ^
I said this above because I hadn't seen it before reading yours. But I'm afraid of Rhule at PSU, I think he's awesome. I mean you can't go into a worse situation than Baylor, and he comes within a TD of beating OK after being 9-0. And he did a great job at Tulane too.
November 21st, 2019 at 2:16 PM ^
Here's an "unlikely to ever happen but what if?" thought experiment:
Would you rather have PSU keep Franklin, or have PSU lose Franklin and hire Josh Gattis for HC?
November 21st, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
Please tell me what concerns you about Rhule? I'm not impressed by him.
I think Matt Campbell is a better coach than Rhule. What Campbell is doing at Iowa State is unprecedented in its modern history.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:44 AM ^
I would leave PSU in a heartbeat if I were Frames....assuming the money was right. Better weather, better recruiting, less academic scrutiny....better coeds for his assistants to marry.
win/win/win
November 21st, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
Am I the only one who thinks using the word "coed" in 2019 is kinda odd? I'm not bringing this up for "woke" reasons or discrimination or whatever. It just seems a little clinical and musty, like saying that you are a "real gone cat."
November 21st, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
Well, maybe it's because I'm old!! I don't know, it was the way we used to refer to the members of the opposite sex back in my day
What's the preferred nomenclature?
November 21st, 2019 at 11:52 AM ^
I would love to know how large Rhule's buyout is. Some extremely cursory searching suggests that it is very large, but nothing specific.
Also based on a very cursory search Franklin's buyout may be as little as $1 million, so it may be that PSU wouldn't get much balancing money to cover the cost of paying Rhule's buyout.
November 21st, 2019 at 11:54 AM ^
James Franklin could get some pretty attractive coaches' wives at FSU. Do it!