Here’s what Penn State football coach James Franklin said about the USC coaching rumors
It didn’t take long after the news that USC fired its head coach Clay Helton broke for Penn State head coach James Franklin’s name to get thrown into the national conversation as a potential replacement.
But while the college football world might be busy speculating, Franklin is instead focused on Auburn.
“As you guys know, I can’t stand any form of distraction,” Franklin said Tuesday. “So, I’ll discuss this today with the leadership council so that we can make sure that all of our energy is on our preparation for Auburn. That’s how we’ll handle it. I’m going to talk to the leadership council today about it.”
Franklin has a $4 million buyout with Penn State.
The 49-year old Franklin has an 86-43 record between Vanderbilt and Penn State and is in his eighth year as the head man of the Nittany Lions. Penn State nabbed a Big Ten Championship in 2016 and reached the Rose Bowl, where the Nittany Lions lost 52-49 versus USC. Penn State went on to win the Fiesta Bowl 35-28 in the following year against the Washington Huskies and defeated the Memphis Tigers in 2019 in the Cotton Bowl Classic, 53-39.
While at Vanderbilt, he turned a team that was 2-10 in 2010 under Robbie Caldwell to a 6-7 team the following year with a Liberty Bowl appearance. In 2012, Vanderbilt went 9-4 and finished No. 23 in the Associated Press poll and won the Music City Bowl 38-24 against NC State. Franklin led Vanderbilt to another 9-4 finish and a No. 24 ranking in the AP poll with a 41-24 BBVA Compass Bowl victory over Houston, compiling a 39-24 record at the Nashville program.
USC fired head Helton after six seasons at the helm on Monday afternoon in Los Angeles. Helton went 46-24 during his tenure at USC, but started the 2021 season 1-1. The Trojans began with a 30-7 victory over San Jose State in the first week and lost to PAC-12 rival Stanford 42-28 on Saturday.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 1:33 PM.
