News came down Friday that Penn State head football coach James Franklin has been extended through 2025, putting an end to rumors he’d end up at Florida State.
That got me wondering about where Brian Kelly ranks in terms of all college football coaches.
If Saban is the GOAT and Dabo Swinney is the next best thing going, how far down would you have to go in order to find Brian Kelly?
James Franklin took a program that was awful before and has again turned south since his departure into a pretty respectable team in his time at Vanderbilt.
Since taking the Penn State job in 2014 he’s returned the Nittany Lions to glory, winning the Big Ten in 2016 before falling in the Rose Bowl to USC.
He’s gone 55-23 overall since 2014 but 44-11 in his four years Penn State has played without any scholarship restrictions.
Residing in the Big Ten East is no simple life as Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan sit in your division and provide top-tier competition on an annual basis (OK, perhaps not Michigan State).
It gets me wondering though, which coach would you rather have if I were to give five years with each at the helm?
Brian Kelly took advantage of a generous schedule by year-three and had Notre Dame playing in (and getting blown out in) the national championship his third year on campus. Year-nine saw Kelly take Notre Dame to the College Football Playoff where eventual national champion Clemson routed them, 30-3.
Franklin has won at Penn State and in his first year without scholarship restrictions won the Big Ten. However, he hasn’t done so again and despite having a top-ten team this season, is yet to get back to that second Rose Bowl appearance.
I’m curious which coach you’d rather have going forward.
Brian Kelly appears to have an elite recruiting class taking shape for 2021, 11 years into his run.
Franklin again won ten games in one of college football’s best divisions and seems to have Penn State on a level they haven’t been at with any consistency since the nineties.
It’s a tough to make a choice and both coaches bring plenty of off-the-field drama with them.
But gun to my head, Kelly has shown an ability to hire quality assistants on the regular who often take head jobs elsewhere and find the next up-and-comer in the coaching ranks regularly.
That’s something Franklin is yet to show, as he has watched only Joe Moorhead leave, taking the Mississippi State job previous to 2018.
Although a longer tenure, Kelly has seen Chuck Martin, Matt LaFleur, Butch Jones, Bob Diaco and Autry Denson take head jobs elsewhere after being his assistants at various points the last decade or so.
The ability to hire quality assistants is so important to me and if Kelly keeps seeing assistants get head-jobs, it must mean he’s doing something right.
James Franklin is a very good college football coach and worthy of every dime he gets from Penn State.
But even if you complain about Brian Kelly on the regular, would you take Franklin over him given the chance?
At very worst that question is harder than you’d like to admit while truthfully, Kelly’s resume at Notre Dame is incredibly-difficult to compete with unless you’ve actually won a national championship.
Franklin’s extension at Penn State and the desire of other premier programs to hire him should make you appreciate Brian Kelly as a coach a bit more, even if you’re not entirely in love with him.