ALTOONA, Pa. -- James Franklin wants more. And more. He's not unlike all college football coaches in that regard, always on the lookout for every little thing that can help his program.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
But lately, Franklin seems to keep publicly reminding everybody at every turn how he wants more from Penn State from a commitment standpoint (BTW: He means money and resources). Even if he's not wrong to bring that up from a big-picture standpoint, it sure has started to come across like he's making excuses for why the Nittany Lions have struggled on the field this season.
Does Franklin deserve more? Can Penn State afford to give him and the football program more? Those are the key questions, and the answer isn't as simple as many people might think given that the school has to pay for 31 athletic programs, plus still needs to pay for major renovations to Beaver Stadium and other facilities.
There's also this: Even if Penn State had given Franklin more resources, the Lions still probably would have lost at Iowa this season. And at home to Illinois. And to Michigan.
Those losses didn't come down to what Franklin doesn't have at Penn State with regards to resources.
Those losses came down to the fact that Franklin is not a great game coach. Period. His team had leads in all of those games with a chance to win, but didn't.
Better locker room facilities or higher-paid assistant coaches wouldn't have changed those outcomes.
That's because while Franklin is a good enough coach to get his team close, he's not a good enough game coach to consistently win close contests against the best opponents -- save for, of course, when his team got a miracle blocked field goal for a touchdown.
Something extraordinary happened Wednesday that not only sent shock waves throughout college football, it also had to come as frustrating to Franklin.
Michigan State reportedly is preparing to give coach Mel Tucker a new 10-year contract worth an incredible $95 million, or $9.5 million per season. That would make Tucker the second-highest paid coach in college football, behind only Alabama's Nick Saban ($9.7 million).
While that is phenomenal news for Tucker, keep in mind that Michigan State is in the Big Ten East, along with Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. The Spartans are No. 4 in that pecking order when it comes to college football relevancy, but clearly, the school is making a gigantic commitment with this contract, so certainly the division just got even tougher for everyone, including Penn State.
For Franklin, seeing Michigan State making that kind of commitment had to create one of those, "You're s***ting me" kind of moments. Because make no mistake about it, Franklin's job just got more difficult with Tucker's contract.
Michigan State football has never had the kind of resources Penn State has, and still doesn't match up when it comes to facilities. But again, if the school is going all in with that kind of money for the coach, you can be certain it will now be looking to do whatever it can to give Tucker everything he asks for to reach his goals.
THAT is what Franklin wants. That's what he was referring to when he said this Tuesday about what Penn State needs to do in order to beat top 10 teams consistently (the Lions have lost nine in a row).
"This is the most competitive sport in college athletics, and you have to be willing to compete in everything, year-round," Franklin said. "The margin of error is very, very small, and you have to be willing to commit, and it's not the Saturdays. The Saturday is a part of it. But you have to be willing to compete 365 days a year with what everybody's doing in 2021."
What the big boys across the sport are doing is spending whatever they need to spend on football. Franklin wants Penn State to spend whatever needs to be spent on football. Not necessarily on his salary -- he makes $6 million a year plus incentives -- but on upgrades and facilities and more personnel, you name it.
More. More. Gimme more.
Like I mentioned earlier, though, even if Franklin had all of that, would it have helped him better develop a second-string quarterback so that the entire program wouldn't essentially collapse if something happened to Sean Clifford (which it did at Iowa)?
Would a better locker room help Penn State's offense not look like complete garbage in the loss to Illinois?
Would more analysts help Penn State's defense, which has been terrific all season, not give up a 47-yard game-winning TD against Michigan after the Lions had taken the lead in the fourth quarter?
Those losses weren't about resources. They were about bad football. And it doesn't just happen to Penn State. Oklahoma spends massive amounts of money on football, and its offense looked awful in a loss to Baylor last week that knocked the Sooners out of the College Football Playoff race. Texas A&M spends as much money as any program in the country, and the Aggies are 7-3.
Point is, just throwing money at any problem doesn't make the problem go away.
Sure, Franklin can make some problems go away if he had more resources and more money to spend. But at the end of the day, he's got to do a better job coaching the team on game days and not blow leads in the fourth quarter so much.
COACHING CAROUSEL NOTES
* Mel Tucker was considered a leading candidate for the LSU job. If he's out of the picture there, it changes some of the dynamics in the coaching search. LSU now will have to grab another hot candidate, one that USC also could be looking at for its vacancy.
* You can see where I'm going with this. Even if Franklin may not have been USC's No. 1 candidate after Penn State's recent struggles, the Trojans potentially could lose their top choice now that LSU is still open. Think Baylor's Dave Aranda, who would be a good fit for either school. If he goes to USC, then that school obviously wouldn't want Franklin. But if Aranda goes to LSU, now USC still could be in play for Franklin.
* I don't believe Franklin is going anywhere, because Penn State's disappointing season has damaged him as a candidate. HOWEVER, if USC were to still want him, I do believe Franklin will leave. This season has reminded him how tough things can be at Penn State, and how the school may not be willing to commit to giving him everything he wants. Add in Tucker's new contract at Michigan State, and Franklin knows the challenge will be even greater in the Big Ten East.
