The outlook of Big Ten football coaches has changed slightly over the past year, and that appears to be good news for Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag]. In an annual look at how the Big Ten’s football coaches stack up against one another from top to bottom, CBS Sports has bumped Franklin up the totem pole of the conference’s coaches heading into the 2023 season. But a newcomer does slide in ahead of him.
CBS Sports ranked Franklin fourth among the 14 Big Ten football coaches for the upcoming 2023 college football season. That is up one spot from a year ago.
“Franklin’s reputation took a bit of a hit following the 2020 and 2021 seasons, but Penn State rebounded last year to go 11-2 and win the Rose Bowl. Its only two losses came to Michigan and Ohio State,” CBS Sports writer Tom Fornelli noted. “Penn State is once again the clear-cut No. 3 team in the league (at least until 2024), but if Franklin is going to climb any higher, he needs to beat Michigan and Ohio State more consistently; he’s 4-14 against them since taking the Penn State job.”
Yes, the dreaded record against Ohio State and Michigan shows its ugly head when comparing Franklin to his Big Ten peers, and it is fair to suggest a win against Ohio State is desperately needed to reshape his image a bit. But as previously mentioned, he has fared better against Michigan than most seem to realize. But Michigan, coached by the top coach in this list (Jim Harbaugh), has had the upper hand in the past two seasons. Perhaps not by coincidence, Michigan is coming off a pair of College Football Playoff appearances with Big Ten titles to go with them in that timeframe.
Harbaugh tops the CBS Sports ranking of Big Ten coaches, followed by Ryan Day of Ohio State. The only other coach in front of Franklin going into the 2023 season is new Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell. Fickell comes to the Badgers from Cincinnati, where he was the only coach to guide a non-power conference program to a berth in the College Football Playoff. All three coaches ranked ahead of Franklin have at least one College Football Playoff game under their belts. Franklin is the highest-ranked coach without a playoff appearance in the Big Ten, according to this list.
Franklin comes in ahead of Bret Bielema of Illinois, P.J. Fleck of Minnesota, and new Nebraska head coach (and former Penn State Nittany Lion) Matt Rhule, respectively.
The biggest drop in the annual Big Ten coach rankings from CBS Sports was experienced by Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz dropped from third down to eighth this year, falling quickly past Franklin on his way down.
You can see the full ranking of Big Ten football coaches via CBS Sports.
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