re: James Franklin OFFICIALLY hired by Penn State as the 16th Head Coach

He's gonna crash and burn without the Vandy Advantage working for him.

I heard that Vandy would go after Chad Morris. (I think that came from BSPN.....so it's probably BS)

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Horrible mistake by Franklin.

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Nah he has two things going for him.

1) He is a PA native, and has had coaching experience in and around that area.
2) His whole thing is playing that "us against the world" "We're the underdog" mentality at Vandy. That kind of stuff wouldn't work if he were hired at Texas or So.Cal or something. Given PSU's current circumstance that kind of approach is perfect, and it is done at a major, historically successful football program.

Not sure exactly who VCDW has on his list, but Williams did have this to say.

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"Last time when we did this, quite honestly, we actually had to get on planes and go to a lot of places where people were because it was like `I'll meet with you if you show up at the Des Moines airport and we'll meet behind the cookie counter.' And there were a lot of people that basically said no I don't want to talk you. This time already there is a list of 20-25 people that have reached out to us. At least five of those people are people that we asked to talk to last time that said no."

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Dore, is it true CJF didn't even speak to local media before fleeing and that he basically lied to VCDW and had signed the papers as early as Tuesday? Or is all that just a rumor?

At any rate, the only thing that hurts Vandy's chances of a good hire right now is timing and loss of seniors but if your AD is willing to break out the Brinks truck those factors should be eased somewhat.

From people who were at the Star Walk this morning, I've heard Franklin snuck in a back/side door of McGugin, talked to the team for like 8 minutes, and then snuck out. I have not seen where he made any remarks to the local media or heard that he has, so I don't think he addressed them at all.

As for whether he had anything signed, he obviously didn't have the contract signed since it was just approved this morning. Now, whether he had some sort of other written agreement to sign the contract if the Compensation Committee approved it, I don't know. I'm not an insider, just followed them fairly closely on this one.

The new coach will definitely be compensated appropriately. David Williams is committed to building this team, and that man gets what he wants. He's the one really behind this change of culture. Franklin is a great coach, but Williams opened the check book and got Franklin the support he needed while he was here.