The Josh Innes Show - Idiotic James Franklin Take

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

I was reading a USA Today story about James Franklin. The author feels like college coaches shouldn't get guaranteed deals because coaches are getting paid for failure. What a misguided, idiotic view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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While other money managers are holding, Dynamic is hunting. Seeing past the horizon, investing beyond the benchmark, because your money can't grow if it doesn't move. Learn more at dynamic.ca.c slash active. All right, everyone. Welcome in. It's Josh. How are you? It's 422 in the AM, and we are ready to go. It is all up in us. I appreciate you guys for. listening. I appreciate you guys telling your friends about the podcast. You guys are wonderful. I do appreciate it. I appreciate to download all five episodes every day. That helps me out. Tell your friends. Tell one person. If each of you tells one person to download this podcast

every day, then we double our audience, and then we are rich. And that would be lovely. I would appreciate it if you guys would do that. So let them know that this is an interesting little podcast, and we talk about interesting things. And if you want to check it out, tell them to say hey check it out this is good shit and I would appreciate it so I see this story from USA today because you know that's like my co-host of the podcast where Penn State went wrong with James Franklin and I think this is something about how guaranteed contracts are bad let's get into that because I have a thought on that we will do that after these words I'm here for Bet Rivers Online Casino and Sportsbook with poker icon Phil Helmuth.

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Halloween is on Disney Plus. So you can feel a little fear. What's this? Or a little more fear. I see dad be more. Or a lot of fear. Mom. Or you can get completely terrified.

Who's that? Choose wisely. With Halloween on Disney. All right. So, of course, everybody spent yesterday and really the weekend making fun of the fact that James Franklin's going to get paid $50 million to go away. Although I did read something yesterday that makes more sense, and I talked about this on the pod yesterday, like what happens if he gets a job? And apparently part of the contract states that he has to make an effort to find a TV job or a coaching job. and I think if he gets a coaching job and it pays him less than $8 million a year, Penn State would only have to pay the difference to get him to $8 million a year.

So, like, let's say he takes a job that pays him $4 million. Well, then Penn State would have to still pay him $4 million a year to make up for the $8 million. I think is how it would go down. Like, really, why bother? Like, I understand you want a coach, and I get the pride part of it, and I get the idea that, like, you just got, you know, like, you, like, you, like, just went out, lost your dream gig, you want to prove everybody wrong. So I get it. I understand it. If you're a coach and you're driven to coach and that's what drives you, that's your motivation

in life, I get it that you want to go out and you want to go win football games somewhere. So I respect that. But on the other hand, it's very easy for me to sit here and go, you've got six years of making $50 million. Like part of me would just kind of want to tell Penn State to go fuck themselves. And the best way to do that would be, to have to keep taking every dime of their $50 million. Like, I guess on one hand, you could take a job in the Big Ten somewhere, like UCLA or something like that. Like, UCLA's open, but who knows, they may just hire this New Heisel Jemoke that's won two games

and it's captivated all the people there. But, like, you're going to have an opportunity to take a big job. James Franklin was a successful coach at Ben State. He didn't win the national championship, but he wasn't a flop either. Like, there are some guys that have won championships, but were still major flop. Like, at the end of the day, like, Coach O wasn't terrible at LSU and he won a national championship, but Coach O'Hoc, after it's all said and done, felt like a joke and felt like a flop. Who was that what's his name that was the guy that took the Iowa State dude that took the job at Auburn?

Gene Chisick. Gene Chisick is the guy that won the national championship with Cam Newton and literally did nothing else. Like, Gene Chisick, big picture, probably a failure at Auburn. He rode Cam Newton, just like Coach O'Row, rode Joe Burrow and those dudes he had for one good year and the rest of the year sucks. So, like, that's not how I feel about James Franklin. I think James Franklin didn't win a championship, but James Franklin ran a pretty good program there. And I don't think he was a total numb nuts as a coach. Like, did he beat Ohio State enough?

No. Did he beat Michigan enough? No. But he was also one game and three points away from being in the national championship game last year. And he was a couple of yards away from beating Oregon this year. and come from behind fashion. And that's what's fascinating when you talk about what ifs. How does the world change if he wins that game?

If he wins that Oregon game, how does the world change? How does the world change of James Franklin gets to the national championship last year? There's a lot of these factors. But I'm tickled by the idea that Penn State, no matter what, will have to cover the difference for whatever job he gets to get him to $8 million a year, I think, was the number. it would just be funny if he said fucking I'm looking for jobs but I can't find one and Penn State has to keep paying him $8 million a year and how do they know that he's really putting forth that effort and like let's say he gets a TV job a TV job I'm going to

pay him anywhere near $8 million a year so like let's say he gets a TV job and it pays him X dollars you're probably still paying $7 million a year if you're Penn State to cover that so like I think it'd be funny if he just said fuck it I'm going to make Penn State pay every fucking dime of this. To me, that'd be, like, I'll ask the question, what would be a better spite way to do things? Go out and win a national championship at UCLA or something, which is not going to happen. Like, I don't believe James Franklin's going to go to some shitty institution and turn them into a big-time powerhouse winner, okay? But, like, he's not going to go to UCLA and become a national champion.

But, like, let's just say you did. Would that be the ultimate FU or would the ultimate FU just be, and I'm going to spend the next six years collecting all of your money, every dime of your money. And then what, like, actually, here would be the best. If you're James Franklin, you collect all of their money. You go coach nowhere. You just collect every dime of their

money. And whoever they hire to follow you win six games every year. And they're a disaster. And they have to be fired within a couple years. And then Penn State is paying multiple coaches, gigantic buyouts. Because if you're going to go out and get a legit head coach, you have to give somebody a buyout because these guys are going to get these big buyouts. Look at the big

buyouts that are still out there. You're like Brian Kelly would get, like, all of his money if he got fired. Like, that's the way these deals are. So, I think that'd be a fun way to go about it, too. Like, I don't know what would be the ultimate. I guess truly if you're a competitor, the ultimate way to do it, is to go win big somewhere and have them pay the difference, but you win and play them and beat them so they're paying you to beat them. I guess that would be the ultimate.

You take a job somewhere that pays you, whatever amount of money it pays you. I guess technically you'll never double dip then. Like, it's not like a situation where if you got a job paying you. $8 million a year somewhere, that you also get the $8 million from Penn State. No matter what, like you're probably going to make $8 million a year somewhere because no one's going to pay you $8 million. And if they did, then it just takes Penn State off the hook. And you don't want Penn State off the hook.

You want them to feel the pain. So I guess the ultimate would be if you go somewhere, make $3, $4 million a year. And that'd be part of the allure of hiring you, too, is that these teams and these universities would know that they're getting a pretty good, successful coach. and they're going to have Penn State pay most of the bill that you get this guy, you go somewhere and you win and you win big and you shove it up Penn State's ass and they're still paying you. That would be the ultimate, unless you want to be a bum and do nothing

and just collect their $8 million a year and tell them to go fuck themselves. Then Penn State also has to fire a coach while they're still paying you and pay this next guy. That would also be spectacular. I saw my buddy Howard Eskin tweet something about this the other day, and he puts fraud next one because he loves to call people a fraud. Everybody that he doesn't like is a fraud. It does not matter. Like, it doesn't matter.

Like, I think Penn State had a nice run with Franklin. I think Franklin was a pretty good coach. Not amazing, but a pretty good coach. But he's a fraud, according to Howard asking, he's a fraud. Everyone that Howard does not like is a fraud. And he said he was probably the worst coach in Penn State history. Well, they've only had three coaches in the last 60 years, 70 years. So it's like saying that, like, that Mike,

Tomlin is the worst Steelers coach ever. Well, there's only been three. So it's not like you're saying a ton, but anywho, I've got to get to this story. If you predicted in August that Penn Stage James Franklin would be the next big 10 coach fired at UCLA's after Deshawn Foster, I suggest you contact the feds and offer them your psychic services, blah, blah, blah. As the season hits a midpoint, the coaching carousel is already shifted into high gear.

Give it a few more weeks and it'll be twirling at warp speed. Here's some of the options. Where did Penn State go wrong? Fully guaranteed contract should be shot into the sun. They reward failures. Franklin's losses to UCLA and Northwestern earned him a buyout where the drinks are paid and the sun always shines. Penn State owes Franklin a buyout topping $49 million, according to his term sheet.

Good for the second largest severance pay day in college football history. That's a sweet reward for losing to two unranked teams that were big underdogs in consecutive weeks. but that's what happens when schools award coaches fully guaranteed contracts. Why not? Why are you against the idea of someone who can get fired and get their money? What's wrong with that? In the real world, there's a lot of people that get fired from their jobs and we'll never get anything. And I know that this isn't the real world.

This is monopoly money we're talking about here. But like, you should get guaranteed deals because in theory you've turned down big deals to go elsewhere to stay there, which means you've left a lot of on the table to stay at that university because I guarantee you Penn State has been or James Franklin's been courted by somebody at some point in this time at Penn State someone's at least reach out to his representation and inquired about whether or not James Franklin would like to leave like so the idea that these guys shouldn't get fully guaranteed contracts screw you why not so you mean to tell me you sign an eight million dollar deal and you're feeling very comfortable in your life but because you lost a fucking Northwestern you don't

deserve to get paid the money that you signed a fucking contract it's like it's funny when it comes to rooting for the like when it comes to the players everybody's always rooting for these 18 year old dudes who've accomplished nothing in life to get paid a shit ton of money and get theirs and be guaranteed theirs but the coach who's actually accomplished something in life no he shouldn't get guaranteed money i guarantee the t these same schmucks would tell you that every player that's 18 years old and signs an nil deal should get five million dollars a year and they deserve this they deserve that and blah blah The coach should get a fully guaranteed deal.

I would like to have a fully guaranteed deal in all my deals. I don't get them, but I'd love to have that. The best I did was a six-month deal. Like when I was at I-heart in Houston, I got a very nice six-month deal to go away. They fired me. I forgot how much time was left on the deal. I think there was only like seven months left on the deal anyway. But I got like a six-month severance package that paid me my salary for six months.

And it was very nice. Now when I got fired in Philadelphia, I got paid two fucking weeks. Like, I will always be on the side of somebody. If you're forcing somebody to sign a contract, by the way, when they sign that contract, that means they can't leave your ass. They could, but then they have to pay a huge buyout to leave you. So if James Franklin, after signing that long-term deal, I guess that was in 2021, if James Franklin in 2022 just got an offer, he couldn't refuse and was getting paid

$10 million a year or something like that to go coach at Iowa, he could do that, but they'd have to pay a huge sum of money to the university to Penn State to cover that. So you mean to tell me that Penn State's covered, but the guy shouldn't be covered? That's bullshit. Contracts are bullshit in that way. So good for him. Like the idea that because he lost two fucking football games, he doesn't deserve the money that he was owed? Fuck you.

Like, that's such a fucking dipshit tank. What a lame-ass tank. Oh, these fully guaranteed deals are terrible. Why? So because the guy lost in Northwestern, we say, Oh, he shouldn't have gotten paid to leave. He's a rewarding failure. The guy coached there for over a decade.

The guy was three points away from the national championship game a year ago. So big picture wasn't a failure because they didn't win a national championship? Sure. But you want to tell me that a guy staying at a job for 10 or 11 years and winning the amount of games they won is a failure and thus he doesn't deserve to get paid the money that they agreed to fucking pay him? That's such bullshit. And it's such a lame media dipshit way to look at things. It's such a lame, I make 50 fucking grand a year dipshit way to look at things.

Oh, derp, derp, this guy lost in Northwestern. Durp, derp, he doesn't deserve a fully guaranteed deal. But I guarantee you believe that these college football playing dipshit kids who've never done a fucking thing in their lives deserve fully guaranteed NIL deals. You don't care that they bounce from place to face, and have zero sense of commitment anywhere. James Franklin went 104 and 45 at Penn State. was he amazing no but you know how many 11 win seasons he had like six the dude was there from

2014 to 2015 one two three four five six double-digit win seasons guy had a pretty good run there was it amazing no but they agreed to pay him the money so because he lost a couple of games after going to the college football playoff and being three points away having a fifth ranked finish in college football last year because they decided to fire him because he lost to Northwestern and UCLA. He doesn't deserve to get his money? It's such a lame-o way to look at things. Oh, fully guaranteed deals are like, no bullshit.

You get a fully guaranteed deal because at the height of James Franklin's powers, he probably could have left for other jobs, and maybe they would have paid him more or something close to it. So you're paying him for the opportunities he's turning down. Because by staying with you, maybe things failed where they would have succeeded, elsewhere and he'd be getting that money anyway. God, what a hard-on. Fully guaranteed deals are bad and they reward failure.

They don't reward failure. So if you have nine great years somewhere and you have a bad last season and the university decides that you're not worth the shit anymore and they decide to pull the plug on you, you failed? Failure is doing nothing. Failure is you had four years. Deshawn Foster is a fucking failure at UCLA. The guy did absolutely nothing.

Brian Callahan was a failure in Nashville for the Titans. James Franklin was not a failure. James Franklin had a pretty good run there and had some pretty good moments there. So, fuck you, rewards failures. That's someone who has no idea what anything is like in life and writes for fucking USA Today and is a Pud. Blake Topmire. Let's see what Blake Topmire's fucking resume is. What you've done, Blake Topmire.

you putts anyway let's see here we got more to come