(OT) Penn State Football - James Franklin no longer

[bigegypt0417]

No surprise...Knowles getting a buy out and may be on his way to Tennessee.

[zambonir]

Man, what a bummer for both sides though. PSU probably still has to pay him a pretty good chunk of change (he was owed $7 million), and he took the job because he was from PA, not just for the money.

Ty Howle also leaving to join Franklin.

I wonder if any of Campbell's staff will participate in bowl prep.

[bigegypt0417]

And Sherrone Moore fired by Michigan for an inappropriate relationship.

[zambonir]

Amazing that we pretend some of these people can do anything other than football. Including education and the care of students. Incredible self-sabotage too.

[zambonir]

A student, perhaps? Or he's also been accused of something?

Ex-UM coach Moore detained by police after firing

DeBoer now the Internet's choice to get the job, the carousel never ends!

[phillychuck]

I know I’m not a Michigan fan, but it sure seems like they have hired a series of questionable characters since Schembechler, who was himself accused of brushing incidents concerning the UMich doctor under the rug...

[zambonir]

Well, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State have all had their issues in that regard, some of them multiple times. But I don't recall Gary Moeller or Lloyd Carr doing anything wrong for almost two decades. Harbaugh just cheated of course (as did Moore!) but that's a completely different character issue.

[phillychuck]

Good points about Moeller and Carr...but...

Moeller had an issue in a bar dispute in 1995 where he was filmed being drunk and obnoxious. Carr was widely respected, but he left the program in disarray IIRC.

[zambonir]

Actually Carr was the national coach of the year and retired after upsetting #9 Florida in the Citrus Bowl, though that was also the year of the famous App State upset. Did not recall the Moeller thing but that kind of thing certainly doesn't keep anyone from coaching either (see Steve Sarkisian, who at least got help).

People probably thought Rich Rodriguez was as good a hire as Campbell at the time, just as Charlie Strong was at Texas. But I'm happy how it worked out.

[zambonir]

Like attracts like I guess (2022)

University of Michigan fires its president after investigation into an alleged...

[bigegypt0417]

Penn State will build a recruiting class through ISU...this is the first....

https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2025/12/penn-state-adds-defensive-back-to-a-2026-recruiting-class-in-need-of-depth-per-reports.html

[zambonir]

I'm sure they will get a dozen former ISU recruits, though that school doesn't typically get four and five stars. Campbell has also not previously been a portal guy. But I assume he's about to be (hopefully not just his former players).

[bigegypt0417]

Campbell can actually swim in the 4/5 water now....he certainly has the financial resources to do it.

[zambonir]

Oh for sure. But not 'til next year's recruiting class, strictly speaking. Anyone who flips from ISU isn't gonna be one and anyone else will come via the portal. Maybe there's a few February strays who didn't commit already.

[bigegypt0417]

https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2025/12/penn-state-nabs-talented-quarterback-for-2026-class-on-huge-day-in-nittany-lion-recruiting.html

[bigegypt0417]

Seems like Campbell just wanted to move on from Knowles...

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/college/iowa-state/football/2025/12/23/iowa-state-football-defensive-coordinator-jon-heacock-retires/87894123007/

This may be the reason?

Lincoln Riley, USC preparing to move forward with or without D'Anton Lynn

[zambonir]

I don't think Knowles was ever staying, even if it seemed that way when they initially reported Heacock would come along but not be DC. I think they probably didn't want to build a program with a 65 year-old coordinator. The OC hasn't even turned 35, and Lynn is also around that age. That hire would be very nice, someone here even wanted him to get the big job IIRC.

[flyers19rw]

When this NIL and portal business got out of control a few seasons ago, it was easy to get disgusted with the players hopping around like grasshoppers. Now with the way that coaches are doing similar things, the players don't deserve to be criticized at all. The game is falling apart at the seams. It's past time for school administrators to step in and decide if they are academic institutions with student athlete programs or if they are semi pro adjuncts to major sports. If it's the latter, fine but get off of the taxpayer's dime. Fully fund your own programs. Unfortunately that can't happen since most athletic departments alone are deep in the red ink.

[zambonir]

The coaches were always hopping around like that, that's one of the reasons the new system needed to happen, imperfect though it remains.

The taxpayers (nor the students) aren't really paying for any of this stuff though. Penn State specifically isn't even a truly public institution. The new revenue-sharing model is money that only comes from athletics, and NIL money does not come from the schools at all. Even before all this football paid for itself at the big schools- and also paid for nearly every other sport. Severing football (and/or basketball) from the universities would only end up hurting all the other sports, though that might also be the case in the current system.

It's a ridiculous system, but there's not really anything about the way athletics messes with a university's mission that isn't also true of politicians, corporations and donors.

[bigegypt0417]

It's a completely imperfect system and the product on the field is fantastic.

Players should have always been paid but like usual, the NCAA picked a system that takes virtually nothing out of its pockets. The NIL system requires some type of reform but it has made the playoffs more interesting.