Seemingly distracted Franklin claims it’s business as usual
One day after it was reported that he had changed agents, Penn State football coach James Franklin said Tuesday he’s committed to being with the Nittany Lions beyond this year.
“Yeah,” Franklin said. “Obviously I’ve been asked this question multiple times. My focus is completely on Illinois and this team and this program. I think I’ve shown over my eight years my commitment to this university and this community. That’s kind of my statement.”
Several times by mistake, he said Illinois, Penn State’s opponent last week, instead of Ohio State, its opponent this week, during his weekly press conference.
Franklin has naturally received criticism for the Nittany Lions’ stunning 20-18 loss to three-touchdown underdog Illinois in a record nine overtimes at Beaver Stadium, which dropped Penn State to 2-2 in the Big Ten and 5-2 overall.
His name has been mentioned with openings at USC and LSU since the Trojans fired Clay Helton last month and the Tigers announced earlier this month that Ed Orgeron would not return next season.
Several outlets reported Monday night that Franklin had changed agents, dropping longtime representative Trace Armstrong of Athletes First and hiring Jimmy Sexton of CAA.
Sexton’s clients include college football coaches Nick Saban of Alabama, Lane Kiffin of Mississippi, Kirby Smart of Georgia, Steve Sarkisian of Texas and Dan Mullen of Florida.
Armstrong negotiated Franklin’s last contract extension at Penn State, which has an escalating base salary that’s set to rise to $6.5 million in 2025.
“I’m glad you asked,” Franklin said regarding the change in agents. “I’m not going to get into the details, but what I will tell you is that this is being reported now, but this is something that happened over the summer.
“Obviously I didn’t make an announcement. I don’t know anybody that ever does when that happens. But it’s something that happened over the summer.”
Under the terms of Franklin’s current six-year contract, which were announced in February 2020, he made $5.4 million in base salary last year, followed by $5.5 million this year, $5.75 million in 2022, $6.0 million in 2023, $6.25 million in 2024 and $6.5 million in 2025.
Now in his eighth season, Franklin has a 65-30 record at Penn State, three New Year’s Six bowl appearances, three top 10 finishes in the polls and a Big Ten championship. He has a 9-7 record, however, since the start of the 2020 season.
Franklin and his staff have assembled a recruiting class of current high school seniors that’s ranked in the top five in the country.
He’s worked with president Eric Barron and athletic director Sandy Barbour during almost all of his time at Penn State. Barron is retiring next
year, and Barbour’s contract expires in 2023, so there’s uncertainty about the future university leadership.
“We all came in at a challenging time in Penn State’s history,” Franklin said, “and we’ve worked very well together and have battled together. But you want to have an idea of what the future is going to hold. I’ve got tremendous faith in our board and our board leader, Matt Schuyler, that we’re going to get somebody great (as Barron’s successor).
“Eric is going to be difficult to replace. So, yeah, there are a lot of moving parts, but I’ve got tremendous faith in our leadership on the board and on campus, too.”
Franklin seemed to be preoccupied during the press conference,
whether it’s because of the report about him changing agents or because of back-to-back losses to Iowa and Illinois after a 5-0 start and a No. 4 ranking. Besides calling Ohio State “Illinois” several times, he also referred to Ohio Stadium as the “Big House,” which is the nickname for Michigan Stadium.
He was asked whether it’s realistic to think the Penn State players wouldn’t be distracted by the “outside noise.”
“There are things that we can control and there are things that we can’t from the outside,” Franklin said. “This has been kind of a story that’s happened on numerous occasions, and we just try to keep it as focused as we possibly can.”