What a difference a year, and a Rose Bowl victory, can make for a head coach in college football. Sporting News got in the act of updating its coaching rankings for the upcoming 2023 college football season and Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] moved his way up the rankings from last year’s update. But Franklin still sits a few spots out of the top 10 according to the Sporting News coaching rankings for this season.
Franklin comes in at no. 13 overall in the Sporting News ranking of all 133 FBS head coaches this season. Franklin moved up four spots from no. 17 a year ago when the publication shared its 2022 ranking. Franklin had fallen six spots to no. 17 from 2021 to 2022, so he is making up some ground going into the 2023 season.
“That’s the shuffle expected given the results,” Sporting News explained with Franklin’s movement in the coaching rankings in recent years. “Penn State went 11-11 in 2020-21, and that sandwiched around 11-win seasons in 2019 and 2022.”
There is no question that the 2020 and 2021 seasons did not go according to plan for Penn State, which had been enjoying life as a perennial New Years Six bowl contender in the few years just before that. So a rebound season in 2022 was needed to regain some momentum in building a team that could compete for a Big Ten title and, with a little luck on its side, potentially get into the College Football Playoff soon enough.
The bar is raised for Penn State this season, and Sporting News pointed out the typical criticism that is holding Franklin and Penn State back. They have to get by Ohio State and Michigan, or at least one of the two.
“Penn State continues to struggle against Ohio State and Michigan,” Sportihgn News noted. “Franklin is 4-14 against the Big Ten East powers. Will that change in 2023?”
Penn State is being projected to be a likely top 10 team at the start of the season, so the expectations are certainly rising. If Penn State turns in another double-digit win season, will that be enough to get Franklin back into the top 10, or does he have to get past the Buckeyes and/or Wolverines to generate more momentum up the coaching rankings?
For the sake of comparison, CBS Sports ranked Franklin as the no. 10 coach among Power 5 coaches this season. Franklin was no. 9 on a similar list shared by College Sports Wire.
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