In August, Penn State rewarded James Franklin with a new contract that makes him one of the highest-paid head coaches in college football. If this latest report is accurate, they may have to up the contractual ante to retain him.
It’s not exactly a state secret that Kevin Sumlin entered the 2017 season on the hot seat at Texas A&M, what with a middling 35-20 overall record and just a 15-17 mark in SEC play. Against teams from the West division, he was just 9-15 prior to this season.
Following the historic season-opening collapse to UCLA in the 2017 opener, one A&M regent very publicly called for the immediate firing of Sumlin, who was still the seventh-highest-paid head coach in college football in 2016. That came on the heels of Sumlin’s boss, athletic director Scott Woodward, very publicly putting his head football coach on the hot seat this offseason by stating that Sumlin “knows he has to win and he has to win this year.”
At 4-2, Sumlin still remains somewhat on the periphery of the hot seat talk halfway through the year, although giving Alabama its toughest test of the season has somewhat quieted the talk (for now). That said, though, Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com writes that “Penn State officials are preparing for Texas A&M to make a run at hiring James Franklin should Kevin Sumlin and the Aggies part ways.” Franklin, of course, spent three years in the SEC as the head coach at Vanderbilt before bolting for Happy Valley after the 2013 season.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Dodd’s report is the fact that Franklin would owe PSU just $2 million in a buyout if he leaves the Nittany Lions for another job after this season. At the opposite end of the buyout spectrum is A&M, with Dodd writing that Sumlin “is reportedly guaranteed the remainder of his contract if fired without cause.”
Earlier this year, A&M’s former athletic director washed his hands of Sumlin’s contract.
After the report started gaining traction, both Penn State and its head football coach responded.
“Nothing has changed from the commitment that we made to Coach Franklin and the commitment James made to Penn State just before this season started,” the university said in a statement, with Franklin taking to Twitter to address the talk.Recruiting is a crazy business, people will do anything to create drama
1. From PA
2. #3 Ranked Team
3. #3 Ranked recruiting Class#WeAre
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) October 13, 2017