It sounds like USC has serious interest in James Franklin.
According to Dan Patrick, the Penn State football coach and the Trojans have “mutual interest” in each other after Clay Helton was fired. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
You can listen to Patrick break it all down below.
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
Is James Franklin the man for the Trojans in Los Angeles? I honestly don’t know, but it’s clear from the fact Franklin hasn’t denied anything that there’s probably some chatter going on.
I mean, if you weren’t talking to the Trojans at all, why wouldn’t you just say that?
James Franklin on USC and why he doesn’t just say “no” right now to any of the speculation. pic.twitter.com/yBRiMJwXRX
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) September 15, 2021
One of the biggest questions with Franklin is whether or not he’s actually a home run hire for the Trojans. I honestly have to lean towards saying no.
There’s no doubt he’s a very good coach, but the Trojans want a guy who can win national titles. We’ve seen Franklin have some tough seasons in Happy Valley.
USC fans aren’t going to tolerate 9-3 or 8-4 seasons. Clay Helton’s record was 46-24, and he got canned. Expectations are through the roof.
Sean Clifford confirms James Franklin addressed USC speculation with team.
“I don’t think that it’s anything that we need to worry about. It’s something that is kind of out of our hands. We’re just gonna focus on Auburn and then go from there… (1/2)”
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) September 15, 2021
“(2/2) We’re really excited about what we’ve got on table this week, so we’re not gonna let outside sources change our thought process.”
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) September 15, 2021
We’ll see how it all shakes out! Welcome to the wild world of college football!