The Josh Innes Show - Sometimes You Need Some Self Awareness

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

I think I'm one of the more self aware people in radio. I'd say I'm self aware to a fault. Penn State has zero self awareness. This is why they rushed to fire James Franklin and this is why they still don't have a coach. Also, the idea that Mike Tomlin would coach Penn State is hysterical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So while we've been talking about Kiffin this whole time, like other jobs have been filled and all these other coaches like South Florida just hired a coach and Auburn's hired a coach and Ole Miss is hired a coach, like all these schools have hired coaches. And then there's Penn State. And the best part about Penn State is that Penn State was the first job to open up. They rushed to fire James Franklin. And now they still don't have a coach and who the hell wants it? So let's get into that.

Let's play a couple commercials. I find the whole situation to be hysterical, but let's get into it. So, Penn State. Here's the biggest issue with Penn State. You want a little real talk on Penn State. And I think we talked about this whenever they fired James Franklin. And I don't think James Franklin was a bad coach. I think James Franklin was pretty good.

But you got into a situation this year where you were number three in the country, and then you lost three games in a row, and they fired the guy. But big picture, the guy's actually done very good. very good stuff there, right? Like, is he the greatest coach ever? No. And I understand that you have to go into situations thinking that your school is good enough to win national championships. And if you're going to do that and you're going to compete and you're going to compete with Ohio State and Michigan and Oregon and the Big Ten. We just can't accept this mediocrity from James Franklin. And to a degree, I get it. I'm not going to sit there and tell you the guy should have kept

his job or shouldn't have. But I do believe that you have to be realistic about who you are. And that's hard for a lot of people to do. I find myself to be someone who is very realistic about what I am, to a fault. I do think it's possible to be realistic about yourself to a fault. And I'm almost realistic to myself to the point of being almost so self-deprecating that I create like a vibe about myself that I'm worse than I really am. But I can look at situations and I can be honest about who I am. Like I'm at this radio station here that has very small numbers and I'd like to get those numbers up and I'm trying and we're fighting for it and I get it. I also know that the guy sitting in the room next to me next door, the Mojo show on the pop station, is the biggest radio show in town.

And I understand that everybody cares about that show, and that's where all the money goes. And I can understand that. I can tell myself, Josh, you have not earned the respect of these people in the building in terms of rating success and helping them generate revenue to where they look at you the same way they look at him. I'm not delusional. I think some people are delusional. I think Penn State is a little bit delusional. Now, in fairness to Penn State and other schools, like who would have thought that Ole Miss would be a college football playoff team or who would have thought that Indiana could be a college football playoff? They may not have long-term success, but it is certainly possible for even throwaway football schools like Indiana to build some sort of monster and get into the college football playoff.

And by the way, they're going to expand that and it's going to get even easier for these schools. It won't be long until there's 30 teams in this damn thing. And it's like the NCAA tournament and teams that are, you know, 50. 15 and 15, but their RPI, SOS, Sagan, rating, or whatever is like number eight. So they're in. Like, we're going to get those types of things. Texas is going to get into the college football playoff now. And their biggest bragging point as well, we played Ohio State.

Like, think about that. Like, and look, I think you should be rewarded for playing tougher games and blah, blah, blah. But it should also be a factor whether or not you won the fucker, you know? And they didn't. So, like, Texas is riding around, like, well, we played a tough schedule. look at it. We might as well just play the sisters of the poor next year and blah, blah, blah, or just beat Ohio State or beat Florida or any of them. You lost three games, right? But like their selling point is, oh, my God, look what we did. Look out for Texas. We should get credit for playing Ohio State and not playing a dopey schedule. Sure, maybe you should. But maybe you should have also won the game. Now, I think Texas would have a much better shot of winning that game now. And that's the other point. I know that this is what this episode was about.

But there is some truth to that that the reason why tournaments and playoffs are beneficial to teams because it gives you a chance and allows you to get better as the season goes on. You don't punish a team because they lost when Arch clearly sucked two months ago and now Arch is playing much better and that team is playing much better. Like do I think Texas is one of the 12, 13 best teams in the country? Sure. Would I rather see them over, you know, one of these small schools that you just throw a bone to? sure. But we're not going to. And again, I'm kind of torn on it because I get the argument that they played a tougher schedule and that should be looked at. But on the other hand, like, you can't just swing your dick over, hey, we lost Ohio State. Put us in.

Like, if you would have won either one of the two SEC games that you lost, it wouldn't be a factor, right? But anyway, so back to Penn State and being delusional. So I think you have to have some level of self-awareness. But in this new era of college football with NIL and the money and everything and players getting paid, you can buy good rosters now. There's no excuse to look at yourself and be like, well, we're just kind of an also round. Look at Michigan State. Michigan State's a mid-level Big Ten program that had a nice little run with Mike Dantonio and

like you'd look at or Mark Dantoneo and you'd go, that's a fine little program and maybe they'll win 10 games here and there, maybe steal a spot in the Big Ten championship here and there. But Michigan State's Michigan State. Well, Michigan State's got money. They got rich boosters. They got a basketball program that's a perennial power. Why couldn't the football team be?

And I do think you have to have that belief. But I also think you have to be realistic about your situation sometimes. You have to have some level of self-awareness. And what I feel about Penn State, particularly in firing James Franklin and firing them how they fired him and doing it seemingly very abruptly because they had lost these three games in a row. Mind you, they were in overtime against Oregon who's going to be in the college football playoff. So I understand that there was a bad loss. I forgot who their horrible loss was, too, and that was kind of the straw that broke the thing.

But, like, they were in overtime against Oregon. Like, what happens if they win that game? You know, I'm not trying to blow the guy here, but what happens? I think the problem with places like Penn State, and you should never look at a situation and just accept that, you know, you're a loser. But Penn State is, I think the problem with Penn State is Penn State thinks that this is 1985. And it's not 1985. and this isn't you versus Miami, and this isn't, that's not what this is. This isn't Miami Penn State.

This is Penn State of 2025 in an era where Indiana is in the college football playoff and in the Big Ten championship game. And this is an era where a BYU can be there. And this is an era where Ole Miss is there. Schools that are traditionally not powers can be there. I think that they still operate in this world like they're the big shit and people should want to be there. In reality, nobody of any value wants.

to coach at Penn State, right? Not the big names. What do you have to offer? You're in a cold weather place. You're in a small little town. It's not like Pennsylvania is an incredible recruiting area. It's not. I mean, you think of some of the old blue collar dudes that came from Pennsylvania, some

ironhead dudes. Like, I get that. But it's not Louisiana or Florida or anything like that. So it's a cold weather place. You're in the Big Ten. You're a mid-level currently Big Ten program anyway. And then what do you do? You go out and you fire James Franklin, who had some really good success.

Now, was he ever going to get past where he got passed? Maybe not. But how harshly and how abruptly you fired the guy was, and granted, that was boiling for a while, I'm sure. But I just don't, it's not the sexy job that Penn State thinks it is. Look, Pat Fitzgerald wasn't the sexiest name on the market, but Pat Fitzgerald's the head coached now at Michigan State. Penn State should be a better job than Michigan State. You don't have any real competition in the state. Now, that's a selling point for Penn State.

Penn State is, it's them and Pitt, right? And Pitt's fine, but you're not, like, it's Penn State, it's Pitt and Temple. You know, like, what is Pennsylvania college football? It's a nothing burger. Whereas you go to Michigan, you're at Michigan State. You know who you're competing with? A perennial top 10 program, the biggest brand, arguably in the history of college football, is right down the road from you. That's a tough put.

And Pat Fitzgerald's like, all right, I'll take it. I don't know if Penn State was even interested in Pat Fitzgerald. They may not have been. And maybe he'll fail. Maybe it's a bad hire. I don't know. but look at Penn State like Penn State should be this big time power

and they were the first school to fire a guy and they can't find anybody and if you look at the list of people that allegedly turned them down like I think they reached out to like Eli Drinkwitz and they reached out to they think that Lane was one of the names in there but Lane's not going to go to some cold weather place and coaching the Big Ten that just that's not Lane Lane is like super mega tanned and yoga and all this shit

he ain't going to Penn State to coach anybody okay So the names that allegedly turned them down and took other jobs, like, you have to be realistic to a degree. To me, when I say that, the thing I mean about Penn State here is you can't fire James Franklin and not have a plan. I think they thought, well, we'll fire James Franklin and the world's going to want this job. Well, they didn't take into consideration that Florida, an SEC job was going to open up, that LSU, one of the top jobs in the country would open up, that Kentucky an SEC job would open up, and then Auburn an SEC job would open up, and then Arkansas an SEC job would open up. All of those jobs are better than Penn State.

Why? Because they're in the SEC. Not just because they're in the – maybe not Kentucky. Maybe – but look, Kentucky – here's – again, I'm not trying to go deep into the weeds on Kentucky football here. If Kentucky football ever got to a point where they just consistently won eight, nine games and played good football and upset some people every year, they'd be fine with that there. I don't think they expect Kentucky football. But in an era of the playoff, like there's different expectations. The expectations are far different for a lot of these places now.

When I say that Penn State needs to be realistic, this goes back to them firing James Franklin and clearly having no replacement in mind for James Franklin. Look, they just got turned down by the coach at BYU, allegedly. Kalani Sataki. That was the latest name that popped up for BYU. And my man's like, I'd rather hang out with the Mormons. I'd rather do some soaking with the Mormons than come to State College. That's BYU.

Nice little program. And I don't think that would have been a good hire for them anyway. Like that would have been a, to me, that's like, why would you hire Kalani Sataki, a dude who spent his whole life over in the mountains? Like, what does he know about Penn State or what? So, like, it would have been a good hire anyway. But what are they going to do? I just saw a story where people are floating around the name of Mike Tomlin coaching Penn State.

Why would somebody coaching in the NFL? Now, granted, he might get fired. This might be the year they finally whack the guy. But why would Mike Tomlin? want to deal with the bullshit of coaching in the in college why would anybody like look at this um chip kelly maybe not the greatest example but chip kelly preferred to be an offensive coordinator at ohio state and then eventually uh where he just got fired with the raiders chip kelly preferred to be an offensive coordinator for ohio state than be a head coach at ucla why because these

dudes don't want to deal with the bullshit anymore, right? Why would you think a guy who's coached, what, 15 or so years, however long Mike Tomlin's been in the NFL, maybe longer, he's getting closer to 20? Why do you think that someone like Mike Tomlin who spent 20 years coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers, professional athletes, class organization, coaching adults that you don't have to fuck around with? Why do you think Mike Tomlin would want to put on his aviators and leather glasses or his aviators and leather jacket and go over to like Altoona or go watch somebody over in like the suburbs of Pittsburgh playing a high school game and recruit these guys.

Why the, what about Mike Tomlin would ever make anyone believe he'd be interested in that? There's nothing about that guy that would make me think that's possible. Why would this dude want to say, I'm going to go over here and do some, you know, all the right move shit and watch a Friday night lights game in the iron belt and the Rust Belt of Pennsylvania? Like, there's no way. so like here we are we're in Erie tonight we're recruiting a kid out of Erie Mike Tomlin's in the stands for this game that ain't gonna fucking happen

so like the idea that Mike Tomlin's going to take the Penn State job or we even have an interest in the Penn State job unless he's just really bored and won something new but there aren't a ton of guys and there are guys that are doing it but not many that are leaving the NFL game where you don't have to mess with the children in college and deal with the NIL and you have to go up to these kids and tell them how great they are when they're fucking 14 years old and give them a million You'd rather go deal with pros who you already know are good. That's why Pete Carroll,

not granted, there's a lot of these guys that have left because they had left controversy in college, but Pete Carroll, but Harbaugh. I mean, just look at those guys that are leaving and going to the next level. They're like, I'd much rather, Chip Kelly did it. Like, you'd rather leave and deal with adults than the NFL than deal with the bullshit and back slapping

and having the glad hand 14-year-olds and shit. Like, nobody wants to deal with that. Why would Mike Tomlin do that? That is dumb. Anyway, all right, more to come