2025-26 Coaching Carousel

[UConnJim]

I get what you're saying and Franklin is still a good coach. He just isn't THAT guy that's going to get teams to the championship game. It's like Nebraska with Pelini, they just can't get passed their past and realize they are most likely never going to return to the JoePa days.

Everyone calls Franklin a good recruiter, but when you look at Penn St.'s recruiting classes, they aren't ranked as high as you might have thought:

2025: 15, 2024: 15, 2023: 14, 2022: 6, 2021: 21, 2020: 15, 2019: 12, 2018: 6, 2017: 15, 2016: 20, 2015: 14

Average = 14.

2025 Roster Talent Level per 247: #10.

For Penn St. to compete for championships, they need to recruit better as well as coach better.

 

[KryHavok]

...

For Penn St. to compete for championships, they need to recruit better as well as coach better.

Perhaps you're right, but they did just lose a 4-star commit yesterday.
Source: PSU loses commitment of 4-star QB Huhn

Four-star Penn State quarterback pledge Troy Huhn pulled his commitment from the Nittany Lions, a source told ESPN on Thursday night, exiting the program's incoming class four days after the firing of coach James Franklin.

Huhn, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound recruit from San Marcos, California, is ESPN's No. 9 pocket passer in the 2026 cycle and had been committed to Penn State since June 2024. He becomes the top-ranked uncommitted quarterback in the 2026 class.

Hey Coach Mora, maybe give this guy a call, tell him to consider a bit more northeast of where he was going to go? ^_^

 

[Vowelguy]

How thick is the particle board?

26 microns

 

[nelsonmuntz]

"If you asked 100 Hoosiers over the age of 65 . . . "

I wouldn't be surprised if football were actually in the majority today. Indiana is sitting atop the Big Ten standings and ranked 3rd in the country. You gotta strike while the iron is hot. Bonus is becoming the best football school in Indiana.

Try it another way. If Cignetti can’t maintain this level of play, and the school drops back to 8-4 being a good season and 6-6 being the norm, few Indiana fans will care that much. Indiana’s current mediocrity in hoops drives the fan base crazy.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Everyone calls Franklin a good recruiter, but when you look at Penn St.'s recruiting classes, they aren't ranked as high as you might have thought:

2025: 15, 2024: 15, 2023: 14, 2022: 6, 2021: 21, 2020: 15, 2019: 12, 2018: 6, 2017: 15, 2016: 20, 2015: 14

Average = 14.

2025 Roster Talent Level per 247: #10.

For Penn St. to compete for championships, they need to recruit better as well as coach better.

Recruiting is not nearly as important as it was in the pre-Transfer Portal era.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don’t get why colleges pay their coaches so much when the programs increasingly look like pro organizations with GMs and scouts as important as the coaches. Coaches are now game planners and strategists, not the program CEO’s they were through 2021. A dummy like Mack Brown or Dabo Sweeney was able to win because they could out recruit other programs (often with the help of bags of cash).

Now every program can pay players, so successful programs are going to either outspend others or win with some version of moneyball. Either way, the coach is just a piece of the puzzle, but not the whole puzzle. So if coaches are increasingly disposable, they should be paid that way.

 

[Vowelguy]

James Franklin not just gonna be on Gameday today, he is going to be AT gameday in Georgia.

Bizarre . But reading the room was not his strong suit.

 

[huskymedic]

James Franklin not just gonna be on Gameday today, he is going to be AT gameday in Georgia.

Bizarre . But reading the room was not his strong suit.

He doesn’t have to read the room - he has pockets full of money. He can turn off the filter.

 

[Purple Stein]

I get the criticism that Franklin had an awful record against top 10 teams. At the same time, college football is so stacked with the top 10-15 being so much better than everyone else. Everyone loses to top 10 teams unless you are one of the few like Ohio State. Sure Penn State wants to be one of those elite programs. Now Penn State has to really be worried because Indiana seems to have filled in the best of the rest Big Ten slots. Add in Oregon and USC, it may be a long time before Penn State has this level of success again. Very curious to see who will go coach in that environment.

I think this is the right take. Franklin was never going to put Penn State over the top. The question is, can they actually get anyone that's better?