James Franklin knows the whispers. He knows the barbs. For years now, the perception of him has hovered just below the line of the elite. And heading into 2025, with a retooled roster and the usual Big Ten gauntlet awaiting, the Penn State head coach might just have the most intriguing group of talent he’s had since that Big Ten title run in 2016. Sure, he lost some major firepower—defensive linchpins Abdul Carter, Kevin Winston Jr., Kobe King, and Jaylen Reed are gone. But Franklin isn’t blinking, because in his mind and in the minds of those around the program, this isn’t a rebuild. It’s a re-armament.

There are hot takes, and then there are well-measured truths, and Josh Pate brought a blowtorch of the latter this week in settling what’s been one of the most recycled debates in college football media: Is James Franklin overrated? “Has anyone out there told me James Franklin’s a top-five coach?” Pate asked on his show.

“If you have, maybe we have a different conversation. I’d argue he’s not far from that… but I haven’t heard anyone say that James Franklin belongs above Kirby Smart… I’ve never heard anyone say James Franklin as being greater than Nick Saban. I haven’t heard anyone put him above Ryan Day. I didn’t see anyone put him above Harbaugh when Harbaugh was at Michigan in the latter years.” The point here? “If you did that, then I might tell you, you had James Franklin a bit overrated. But no one does that. So the truth about James Franklin is—he’s won a Big Ten title, he’s won double-digit games in six of his nine seasons.” The numbers don’t lie. Neither does his track record at Vanderbilt, where he won 18 games over two seasons—a feat that still sounds like folklore in SEC country.

He has the resume. What James Franklin lacks, frankly, is the signature win at the right time. But as Pate cleverly puts it, that doesn’t equate to being “overhyped.” “One notch below elite… which, of course, in our 10-or-trash society we live in, means he s–ks, right? He’s overrated? He’s none of those things. The way I would classify James Franklin is really good, and I would classify him as absolutely properly rated,” Pate said. Top 10 coach? No doubt. Top five? Probably not. But for a program like Penn State that’s been chasing playoff relevance in the shadows of Michigan and Ohio State, Franklin has consistently kept the Nittany Lions in the thick of it—without ever quite kicking the door down.

But even with all that philosophical clarity off the field, the team still has some tough questions to answer once they hit the turf.

PSU rolled into Week 2 of spring drills still searching for answers along the offensive line. Veteran absences are starting to raise eyebrows, and insider Bob Flounders flagged the edge position as a red-alert zone. That’s understandable—Abdul Carter was a generational kind of talent, a Micah Parsons-level disruptor whose departure leaves a crater. Max Ralph threw two names into the mix: Max Granville and Zuriah Fisher. But as Ralph pointed out, “Neither one of those guys has really played a whole lot.” That’s where the unease creeps in. Talent is there, but experience? Not so much.

Adding to the mix is the quiet transformation taking place inside the defensive meeting rooms. Out is the ever-vocal Manny Diaz. In comes Jim Knowles—a technician with a different tone.

“Jim, he’s a man of few words,” Franklin said in his post-practice comments. “That’s in the staff meetings in the mornings, that’s out here on the field. He’s a believer that he’s going to spend a ton of time in the meeting room and taking notes down, kind of like I do, and then make the points he needs to make to the coaches in the meeting rooms.” It’s a change in energy. Less noise, more substance. And that might be exactly what this defense needs as it reestablishes itself with a new core and a quieter, yet calculated, voice.

The spring chatter is far from over. What happens next will shape how 2025 unfolds for Franklin and Penn State. But for now, one thing is clear: the James Franklin debate isn’t as messy as social media makes it. He isn’t a myth, and he isn’t a failure.

Happy Valley won’t be happy until James Franklin brings the title

James Franklin isn’t just chasing a Big Ten title—he’s chasing Ohio State-level success. And for the first time in his 12-year run at Penn State, he feels the stars might finally be aligning. Literally.

On the On3 Show with Andy Staples, Franklin opened up about why 2025 feels different. “I’m in a situation now where, for really the first time here at Penn State, we have the alignment that I’ve been pounding the table for 12 years,” he said. “From the Board to our President… to our Athletic Director—who played in the Big Ten and understands what it takes… and then the head football coach.”

And he’s not wrong. For years, Penn State’s potential was held back by shifting leadership. “I’ve had three different ADs and three different Presidents,” Franklin noted. “When you talk about alignment, we have that in a way that we’ve never had before.” That alignment, combined with Penn State’s NIL growth and a roster stacked with returning veterans, has people buzzing. Franklin’s already racked up 101 wins in 143 games, with three straight 10-win seasons. Now, it’s time to take that next step.