Paul Finebaum: James Franklin's loyalty to Penn State is waning

Penn State head coach James Franklin has preached loyalty and integrity in his program since his days at Vanderbilt, but given his performance of late, Paul Finebaum says Nittany Lions’ fans should take his supposed loyalty with a grain of salt.

A native of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, Franklin went so far as to label Penn State his “dream job” when he was first hired in 2014, a day he called “the best day of my life.” Loyalty seemed like the glue that would keep Franklin stationed in Happy Valley for the foreseeable future — that is, until the USC job opened up, and his name was frequently atop conversations for the vacancy. Then, the LSU job opened. And amidst all the noise, Franklin — who, by the way, followed up his career-worst 4-5 performance last season with a subpar, 6-4 record so far in 2021 — switched agents, feeding into the rumors that he could be on the move.

Finebaum said Sunday on The ESPN College Football Podcast that he wouldn’t go out of his way to pursue Franklin if he were in the shoes of an athletic director. He would only entertain the idea if, for some reason, “you’ve already made the decision to hire [Franklin].”

But after a handful of shaky losses, including Saturday’s loss to Michigan, which featured a number of questionable coaching decisions, Finebaum said “he better get out of there now if he can.”

“He’s losing games that he probably should win, some of these games, not all of them. The Illinois game, you can’t explain,” Finebaum said, adding that the Michigan game is only acceptable because “I’m starting to come around on Michigan and Jim Harbaugh.

“I still think [Franklin] is a good coach, but I will say this: anyone who thought he might be loyal to Penn State, think again,” Finebaum said.

Among Franklin’s four losses are the aforementioned Michigan and Illinois games, coupled with two more losses at Ohio State and at Iowa — the latter of which spoiled Penn State’s standing in the AP poll, as the Nittany Lions entered Kinnick Stadium as the No. 4 team in the country, before sliding down to No. 7, No. 20, No. 22, No. 23 and now unranked. Franklin, now in his eighth year at the helm of Penn State has gone 3-3 in bowl games but has yet to take the next leap toward the College Football Playoff. At one point this season, that seemed like a legitimate possibility; now, the Nittany Lions would be lucky to win out and finish with eight, seeing as they face an easy Rutgers team followed by a top-10 Michigan State team on the road.

Perhaps Franklin’s loyalty to Penn State really is waning. Or maybe, as Finebaum suggested, he really should take the first available job he can get. After all, he’s coached down his potential salary after losing four of the past five games.

“There’s always this theory about coaches like James Franklin, if you want to hire a coach, you should hire him on his resume, not week-to-week,” Finebaum said. “But [Franklin’s] week-to-week is really starting to cost him some money.”