During any season you’re going to get those news headlines that will distract the team or certain players and see they handle all the attention that comes with it.
Penn State is ranked 10th in the nation and get will do battle with number 22 Auburn Tigers from Beaver Stadium on ABC Saturday Night Football.
Penn State coach James Franklin would get a distraction that he was not ready for as there was a report that came out saying that Franklin is one of several coaches as an early option to be the new head coach at USC.
Early list for USC: James Franklin, Matt Campbell, Bill O'Brien, Luke Fickell, P.J. Fleck, Mario Cristobal, Greg Schiano and Tony Elliott. Former coaches who could be sought include Chris Petersen and Bob Stoops.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 13, 2021
During his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Franklin would talk about the report about him being linked to USC
Later in the week, another report came out on the Dan Patrick Show that said Franklin has mutual interest in the USC Job
A source tells Dan that there's mutual interest between #USC and James Franklin for their Football Head Coaching job #Trojans pic.twitter.com/gSYAmUTi3B
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 15, 2021
Franklin would speak for the final time on Thursday as Penn State continues to put its game plan in action.
JF on the USC rumors: No matter what you say people aren’t happy with. It happens every year but I’m not worried about distractions in the media. I’m worried about my team. pic.twitter.com/8cIkzkkliO
— Justin Morganstein (@JmoTweets_) September 15, 2021
So far, James Franklin has not said Yes or No about the interest in the USC job, but with everything that he faced this week, how will the team respond on Saturday?