Would you rather have James Franklin or Jim Harbaugh as head coach?
Would you rather have Franklin or Harbaugh as head coach?
- Thread starter john4psu
- Start date
I'd rather have long term terminal ED than have Ichabod Harbaugh as PSUs head coach. Even moreso than having Least Miles as PSU head coach though it's damn close.
Yep some people have managed to have a monopoly on dumbass questions.
Even if Harbaugh was a better coach (he's not), I wouldn't want him at PSU. He's a weirdo and does not (IMHO) represent the university well (see recent HR issues with Bo's kid). Franklin does a fantastic job of representing PSU both on the field and off.
His track record indicates he's the better coach. If Harbaugh was here he'd be loved if he won...just like any coach. Also what happened with Bo's kid is a weird argument to make. That can happen anywhere including here with today's cancel culture. You should have just wrote the last line and not the other nonsense.
Our fan base has to stop acting like children when discussing coaches that, thus far, have been more successful than Franklin.
Having Harbaugh is like walking on glass. You never know what embarrassing thing will happen under his leadership.
A lot comes back to the role of football in major universities. Of course, it is a direct money maker. Indirectly, kids want to go to these schools. As such, there is a ton of brand building and indirect benefits. For example, no question that PSU was set back ~20 years by the JS scandal. And to that point, PSU has been very fortunate to have two good coaches help bring the program back to respectability since then.
Regardless, I couldn't be proud of PSU if Harbaugh was HC. I'd follow the program and root for them, but I wouldn't be proud. Given PSU's history, we have a lot more to lose if our HC sleeps over at a recruit's house or he says something really stupid.
I am much more comfortable with CJF than JH at the helm at PSU>
If you were smart enough you might have seen the question posed to put Franklin in a better light since so many dislike him, but then you would have to be smart enough to figure that out. Evidently not.
And I don't have a problem with anyone liking Franklin better but trying to discredit Harbaugh doesn't make sense. He's accomplished more than Franklin so far. Hopefully that changes.
Also, no coach is perfect. The entire fan base will never agree with everything that coach does. Some desperately want Franklin run out of town.
Franklin. I wouldn't hate having Harbaugh despite his oddities, but I feel Franklin is a better representative for the university and that more than makes up for the small differences in coaching.
I’ll say Harbaugh, even though I don’t want him. That way we can chart how many posters who lack reading comprehension attack me for choosing Harbaugh. Even though I don’t want him.
Franklin. Living near Indianapolis, and following the Colts, I really admired Harbaugh as a QB and competitor. He comes across as a younger Joe Biden in his interviews, but he's managed to thrive at UM.
That said, I think Franklin and his players have represented PSU well. I hope we beat both UM and OSU this year. We've got the horses to do it. Not many teams can make that claim.
That said, I think Franklin and his players have represented PSU well. I hope we beat both UM and OSU this year. We've got the horses to do it. Not many teams can make that claim.
Who’s discrediting Harbaugh? Pointing out that he’s a first class jackass isn’t a criticism of his coaching record.
In a perfect situation up at UM without the burden of past sanctions, Hairball underperforms and chokes every freaking bowl game. His claim to fame is what? Beating osu twice? No thanks. I take Franklin over Hairball any day.
Stating you don't want a coach due to his personality is a criticism. Are we pretending everyone likes Franklin?
If someone would have said there would be one poster in this thread arguing on behalf of Harbaugh, everybody would have guessed it was you….shocking.
We all know Harbaugh has, to this point of their careers, been more successful
That's not even an argument needed. It's a fact. Especially when looking at his NFL success.
I have no issue with anyone saying they'd rather have Franklin. Maybe, hopefully, we take a huge step forward this year and this would be an actual debate come January but right now it's just blindly supporting "our" guy instead of acknowledging someone is better.
Hell, we had people here claiming they wouldn't want Kirby Smart over Franklin. It's a flat out lie. People can't accept other coaches and programs are currently better.
What percent of non-Penn State fans would say Franklin is better? Less than 2% seem fair?
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Harbaugh builds lines that beat OSU now. CJF builds lines that struggle to push Villanova off the ball. It ain't close. Let's be real.
Exactly..... Johnny poser-troll yet he presumes to lecture "PSU fans" as to how they should act and behave. This a-hole has scUM douche written all over him.
IMO, they’re on equal footing. Both revitalized dead programs (Stanford, Vanderbilt) and have performed very well at their current jobs despite falling short of a national championship. At the moment, I’d give the nod to Harbaugh because he’s won more Big Ten championships and has two CFP appearances.
This is not a Harbaugh or Franklin question.
Would you want Harbaugh? Full Stop. The answer is NO. The guy is a socially awkward mess who wears out his welcome with every boss he's had. scUM almost ran him out before he found some success. If he doesn't keep a top flight QB in place and he descends back to his rightful spot as 3rd place in the B2G, I think he gets shown the door.
Would you want Harbaugh? Full Stop. The answer is NO. The guy is a socially awkward mess who wears out his welcome with every boss he's had. scUM almost ran him out before he found some success. If he doesn't keep a top flight QB in place and he descends back to his rightful spot as 3rd place in the B2G, I think he gets shown the door.
The difference between Stanford and Vanderbilt are great. Harbaugh built Stanford up from nothing, made them nationally competitive to the point where they were legitimately a top five team for years after he left. Franklin inherited the most talented team in Vanderbilt history, got them to the point where they consistently beat bad teams and consistently lost to above average teams and left as the talent he inherited was leaving. The situation Franklin inherited at Penn State was considerably better than what Harbaugh inherited at Michigan which was still recovering from Rich Rodriquez. This one isn't close. Harbaugh is the better coach by a wide margin. He is a top five coach nationally. I do not think Franklin is a top five coach in the Big Ten, before Lincoln Riley arrives.
Oh good lord…to be wrong on so many levels is quite an accomplishment.
It’s not a fact, it’s your opinion. Had they started on an equal playing field, then maybe you could say there’s no argument, but they didn’t. People are underselling the sh!t show Franklin took over. Let me know when Harbaugh takes over the program with the worst cloud hanging over them in the history of college football and gets it back into contention in year three. Until then no coach can be adequately compared to what Franklin has done. And people certainly can accept other programs are currently better than PSU, but that doesn’t mean the coach is better because there’s no way to know that.
I get what you’re saying, but I disagree with this take. I think there came a point where the sanctions no longer played a factor.
Right now, I give the edge to Harbaugh because he has more Big Ten championships and CFP appearances. Did Franklin and PSU lose their two close games in 2017 because of sanctions, or in 2019? By then, I’d argue both coaches were on an equal playing field.
Just as with the other poster, that’s your opinion. I don’t think anyone can point to a date and say that’s when the sanctions stopped having an impact because it wasn’t just the sanctions, it was the hit the reputation of the university took. The day that no one mentions the Sandusky situation ever again is the day the sanctions will stop having an impact. And yes, it’s possible Franklin lost those games because of the sanctions…we’ll never know who we would have had on the team those years had the sanctions never happened. People can and will always argue over who is a better coach, but unless both coaches are in the same situation, there’s no definite right answer. All a fan can do is decide whether the coach they have is the right one. Unfortunately, that comes down to each fan’s expectations and some are unreasonable in that department.
Everything you said is wrong…your hatred of Franklin makes you say completely ridiculous things and you can’t even see it (or you’re just being a troll). Your take on Vandy vs Stanford is laughable and to think what Franklin inherited was better than what Harbaugh inherited is so ridiculous that anybody that knows even a slight bit about college football would fall out of their chair.
The sanctions are an overwrought excuse for incompetence. 2012 was the only season significantly impacted by the sanctions. They had minor impacts on 13 and very minor impacts on Franklin's teams. Franklin is a good coach, not a great coach but was in over his head when he got to Penn State. The worse offensive coaching in America was the problem in 14 and 15. With that defense and Hackenberg under center, they could have got to 9 or 10 wins both years simply by running a conservative pro-style offense with a man blocking scheme.
What Donovan and company tried to do in 2014 was on par with what Rich Rodriquez attempted to do at Michigan in 2008 when they ended up 3 and 9. Hack was the difference between a bowl game and 3 and 9 in 14 and 15. The same thing happened in 2020. The pandemic was the least of our problems when the real culprit was the radical shift in offensive philosophy.
The reasons we lost two games in 17 and 19 was the reason we lost 4 in 2018, 5 in 2021, 2 in 2022, we continue to lose to Ohio State and regularly lose with a very similar profile. Franklin loses to good teams almost all the time during the regular season. The post season is a bit different but not that different. Things get very interesting when you look at the schedule in detail.
Honestly believing the sanctions have any real impact today is just a made up belief to remain mad about what happened and create excuses for our recent failures. Let's not pretend Michigan was an easy fix. It's like everyone that assumes Texas will be great every time they hire a new coach.
Saying Harbaugh has been more successful than Franklin is factual not an opinion. It's always not a knock on Franklin. Harbaugh, as weird as he is, has been more successful than almost every coach.
Saying Harbaugh has been more successful than Franklin is factual not an opinion. It's always not a knock on Franklin. Harbaugh, as weird as he is, has been more successful than almost every coach.
