James Franklin’s scapegoating for an 0-5 start, fires his OC instead of criticizing himself. Says more about him than Ciarrocca

James Franklin complaining to officials 


… look in the mirror and recognize who is responsible


Penn State angered its football fans who believed that its number eight ranking in the AP top 25 in 2020 was legit. 


It was obviously not as the Nittany Lions got off to one of the worst starts in PSU football history, losing its first five games. 


During that horrible run, Coach James Franklin was quoted as saying this,


“We have to own this season,” Franklin said Tuesday. “We have to own it, but this is not the totality of who we are.”


Ryan Parsons, “James Franklin: Rough Season Not ‘Totality Of Who 

We Are’,” Onward State, December 2, 2020


“I am not willing to own this season”


So, if he is going to own this season, why did he fire his offensive coordinator, Kirk Ciarrocca, after just one season after the coach came in from Minnesota where he had led the Gophers’ offense to its greatest season in about 60 years, with two 1,000-yard receivers and an outstanding young QB?


Ciarrocca had no chance to work with his players because of the Covid-19 epidemic. 


The Patriot-News’ Davey Jones outlined the ridiculousness of Franklin’s firing his OC after one abbreviated year,


How do you fire Kirk Ciarrocca after only a single season when he had no in-person prep work with players he barely knew (because of the COVID pandemic), then lost his top two running backs before the season’s second series? Doesn’t the guy deserve at least one more year under reasonable conditions? …


Is it fair that Ciarrocca didn’t have more time? No, not even a little. I’d say it was a pretty cold move by Franklin given the circumstances.


But you know what else? With the money flying around these days, Ciarrocca will latch on somewhere and very nicely take care of his family. It’s not like being laid off.


And he knew when he moved from Minnesota the landscape of the sport in which he works. Even more these days than the NFL, I think college football is the epitome of that neo-Mad Men phrase, “a results-oriented business.” You have a more limited window than ever to produce. And if you don’t swim fast, the first wave will pull you back.


David Jones, “Why James Franklin fired Kirk Ciarrocca, even knowing he might need 

to replace Mike Yurcich next year,” Patriot-News, January 9, 2021


So, his OC has to own this season, but Franklin does not? That is why that quote above is one that he should have uttered, but did not.


This was not just a cold and callous move for a guy who uprooted his family to move back to his roots in Pennsylvania, but it indicates that Franklin is unwilling to take the blame for the 2020 season.


Trying to deflect the attention of Nittany Lion fans


Here is the entire context of the “own it” quote from Onward State,


“We have to own this season,” Franklin said Tuesday. “We have to own it, but this is not the totality of who we are.”


The head coach cited recent program successes like a Cotton Bowl championship, Fiesta Bowl championship, and Big Ten title as proof that Penn State is more than its 1-5 record. The program had lots of promise just a few months ago, but things can change in the blink of an eye.


Franklin said he likes looking at the “big picture” during times of adversity. He’s not making excuses for a poor season, but he’s accepting the Nittany Lions’ shortcomings and taking things into account for the future. Franklin added that he’s learned a lot about himself, the staff, the coaches, and the fan base during this season.


Ryan Parsons, “James Franklin: Rough Season Not ‘Totality Of 

Who We Are’,” Onward State, December 2, 2020


No, James, you did not learn anything about yourself. You demonstrated a lack of empathy and reality that reflects more on you than on anyone else. 


Ciarrocca will land on his feet because he is good, but you took a guy who moved his family away because of a great opportunity that you offered him, and then unceremoniously yanked him from your staff. 


That is called scapegoating, and it is absolutely classless.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the toughest loss I ever experienced in approximately a quarter-century of coaching football. George Pasierb was a great coaching adversary.

Image
R.I.P. George Pasierb, 1946-2020 Shade-Central City High School football coach Photo: Tribune-Democrat No high school football fan could ask for anything better than this. On a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon on Saturday, October 30, 1982, in Nanty Glory, Pa., the battle featured a clash of two undefeated titans of the Appalachian Conference.  One was the preseason unanimous favorite to win the title, the other a veritable surprise that season, one that had built an 8-0 record entering that game.  This battle lived up to the pre-game hype, ending in a one-point decision that was not certain until the final play of the game.  I thought of this because the coach of the powerful Shade-Central City High School Panthers, George Pasierb, passed away earlier this week. He coached the Panthers for 20 years, but his best team was arguably that 1982 team that battled the Blacklick Valley Vikings on that Saturday afternoon before more than 3,000 ebullient fans.  And, the one-po...
Read more

Why did Tennessee-Chattanooga hire trainer Tim Bream despite his role in the alcohol-induced death of Tim Piazza at a Penn State frat?

Image
… was a live-in advisor at the fraternity On paper, Tim Bream has an impressive resume. Actually, very impressive — up to a point. That seems to be when Bream’s life appears to careen out of control. Bream, who resigned as Penn State trainer in Feb.,  was a graduate of Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, specializing in athletic training. He then attended West Virginia as a grad assistant trainer, where he received a master’s degree in Physical Education with an emphasis on Sports Science. All of this information is from his bio on the Penn State athletic site. He then worked his way up the ladder impressively, working at Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and finally at the University of Richmond, where he was the Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer. Then he received his big break, being name as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Chicago Bears in 1993, and four years later, Head Athletic Trainer. He was with the Bears for 19 years when inexplicably,...
Read more

Why did Mike Tomlin start hiring black coaches after 15 years?

Image
Brian Flores … hiring Flores probably rankled Goodell To place this into context, understand that the only reason that the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin 15 years ago is because he was black.  Why? He had never even been a coordinator anywhere, never in the NFL. The only reason that he was interviewed was because of the “Rooney Rule.” That rule is one named after the late Dan Rooney who led the effort to force every NFL team to interview at least one black coach when it had head coaching openings.  The Steelers had focused their coaching search after Bill Cowher left on Ron Rivera, then a defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. Their interview with Tomlin was a peremptory one, something to satisfy the smell test.  After all, why interview a guy who was just a defensive coach? Coordinators are the people who are hired for the big gig.  Tomlin, though, is a great talker, and he wooed Dan Rooney so much that he was hired for the position.  Which begs the q...
Read more