Penn State coach James Franklin is one of several hot-list names to emerge on several USC coaching candidates lists following the Trojans' Monday firing of coach Clay Helton, but the leader of the Nittany Lions has no time for speculation ahead of this weekend's nationally-ranked showdown against Auburn.
Franklin addressed the USC opening and any potential interest in his Tuesday press conference.
"As you guys know, I can’t stand any form of distractions. So I’ll discuss this today with the leadership council, so we can make sure all of our energy in on preparation with Auburn and that’s how we’ll handle it,” Franklin said, via Lions247.
USC's weekend loss to Stanford at home was the final straw for an athletic department that made the decision to cut ties with the leader of the program despite a sizable financial burden. Helton signed a contract extension through 2023 prior to the 2018 season and his program has struggled since when you consider the expectation level in Los Angeles.
Helton stumbled to a 5-7 record in 2018, finished 8-5 the following campaign and started 5-0 in the truncated 2020 season before falling to Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship Game. Franklin is no stranger to his name being attached to major college football openings given his track record of success at Vanderbilt and Penn State.
In his postgame press conference after the Trojans' 42-28 loss to the Cardinal, Helton shared his message for the USC players and fans, via USCFootball.com.
His plea for support fell on deaf ears.
"It's early in the season," Helton said. "We lost our first conference game. I look forward to seeing the production of our team through an entire season, and look forward to seeing where we add up at the entirety of the season. Obviously, this is a step back from last week's performance, but something that I know our kids will react from. And I hope our fans, and I know they will, they'll support our players.
"Our fans love this university, and they love these players, and we'll do our job. We'll come back out and we'll get it, we'll continue to get wins and add them up and we'll see where we are at the end of the season. I know it'll be a successful season at the end. Like I told them in the locker room, you never want this to happen, ever. But when it's an early one in the season, you can live through it, but you got to correct it extremely fast."
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Penn State football: James Franklin addresses USC Trojans coaching search speculation - 247Sports"
Post a Comment