James Franklin Officially Named Head Coach In-Waiting

by Ben Broman on Feb 5, 2009 10:14 PM EST Comment 2 comments

Because it just wasn't obvious enough before.

Maryland is expected to name assistant head coach/offensive coordinator James Franklin as head coach in waiting, Rivals.com has learned.

In recent seasons, several NFL teams have pursued Franklin. Tampa Bay most recently made a run at Franklin. To keep him in College Park, Maryland officials are expected to announce the move in coming days. Current head coach Ralph Friedgen, who turns 62 in April, is entering his ninth year at Maryland. He has a 64-36 record with six bowl appearances.

Is it just a faulty memory here, or wasn't this stipulated in Franklin's contract? I could've sworn it was, so I don't see how this changes anything. Even if it wasn't, this was blatantly obvious.

I'm torn on this. I hate to name someone head coach before the job even opens up (especially someone who's part of the team performed as poorly as JF's did at times last year). You never know who'll pop up: Turner Gill and Tommy Tuberville are two obvious ones that I'd take in a heartbeat.

On the flip side, it's a great recruiting tool. Players know who the coach will be, which is a gigantic boost. Also, Franklin's always seemed a little bit better (from what I've seen) as a motivator then an actual coach. Maybe HC will fit him well?

What say you?

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Comments

Interesting

Looks like an emerging trend in CFB

--PB--

by Peter Bean on Feb 5, 2009 11:28 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Franklin as HC

I agree with you on Franklin, great moivator and maybe more importantly as a recruiter. As an OC I agree this past seasons performance left quite a bit to be desired, but I’ll give him an incomplete at this point because it was his 1st year and he was working with kids that weren’t of his choosing and the players also were learning a new system. I’m pleased with the 2 QB recruits (at least on paper!) as they seem to fit the type of offense the Terps run, something Friedgen seemed unable to find during the previous 3/4 years. Hopefully this will turn out to be true, that Brown or O’Brien will turn out to be the perfect type of QB to run this offense. With the crapshoot recruiting is we’ll just have to wait and see.

by dcterp on Feb 7, 2009 12:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs