Is Penn State’s James Franklin the most overrated coach in college football? In short, no. CBS survey is a joke

… Big Ten title in his third year

Sometimes, polls or surveys are released that have little validity, so much so that you must ask, “Why did they even bother?”

That is the case of the recent survey by CBS Sports in which they tried to ascertain who the most overrated and underrated coaches are in FBS college football.

When you have just one out of five coaches respond to your survey, perhaps you should can the results. That is the case with the CBS poll prior to the 2018 season. Here is what CBS said about their study: “Our CBS Sports college football writers spoke with one-fifth of the 129 active coaches leading FBS teams entering the 2018 season.” To save you time doing the math, that is just 26 out of 129 coaches. That is an incredibly small sample and should be just ignored.

However, since James Franklin, who is entering his fifth season at Penn State, was ranked in a tie for first place, I decided to look at the reality of what they were saying. Franklin and Florida State Coach Willie Taggart were tied for first in the poll of overrated coaches, but in reality, Franklin has done an outstanding job at Penn State. [Note that just 20 percent of the 26 coaches felt that way for both of these guys. That means five coaches.]

In truth, that might end this year, but after two tough years to start his PSU career, Franklin has put together back-to-back 11-win seasons. In one of them, the Nittany Lions won the Big Ten championship, something that even legendary Coach Joe Paterno had difficulty accomplishing. And Franklin did it in his third season after recovering from devastating sanctions. And he did it because of some great recruiting.

In that year, Penn State should have advanced to the NCAA football final four, but were replaced by Ohio State, whom they had defeated. In addition, they won the Big Ten title, which should have advanced them to the championship series. Ohio State was selected instead, and OSU embarrassed itself and the Big Ten by being shut out by Clemson by more than four touchdowns.

Last season, a one-point loss to the Buckeyes ruined the PSU season. They were undefeated and had played great in the first half, but then had a poor second half. A loss the following week to Michigan State hurt their title chances, and no Big Ten team made the championship playoffs.

Record

Franklin compiled back to back 7-6 seasons in 2014 and 2015, his first two years. However, the Nittany Lions were reeling from the NCAA imposed sanctions that resulted from the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case. When Franklin was hired, he started out recruiting nationally, and his latest class was ranked fourth among FBS schools, according to 247. In addition, he recruited Saquon Barkley, the premier recruit in his four classes, away from Rutgers. That was a huge win for him.

Overall, the Nittany Lions have been 92-60 in Franklin’s four years, winning 65 percent of their games. That is superb considering what he inherited in terms of reduced roster and scholarships when he started at PSU. They were 11-3 two years ago and 11-2 last season.

Granted, Barkley is gone and so is offensive coordinator Joe Morehead, now the head coach at Mississippi State. He has also lost some good players on both sides of the ball, and the Big Ten East is loaded this year.

That being said, saying that Franklin has been overrated sounds more like jealousy than anything else. He restored Penn State to the national stage, and quickly. He won a Big Ten title in three years, and Paterno only won three in his career — 17 years of membership. Some claim that he is a great marketer, and he is. But, I have news for you.

So was Paterno. Joe Paterno was a tremendous self-promoter, but he also delivered. Granted, only two national titles in 46 years, but he won games and filled stadiums. Now, Franklin has to elevate Penn State to the national playoffs and prove that they are one of the echelon programs in the country.

To say that he is overrated is just jealousy and nonsense. If they win just seven games this year, I will change my mind. For now, though, he may be underrated, not overrated.