‘Fiercely loyal’ James Franklin further addresses coaching job rumors

If you’ve googled LSU and USC head coaching rumors recently, James Franklin’s name has probably come up.

One of the bigger storylines for the past week and a half has been naming potential candidates for either of the head coaching vacancies. Ed Orgeron is leaving LSU after this season, and Clay Helton was fired from USC in Week 2 after the 42-28 loss to Stanford.

Franklin was asked about where he’s at when it comes to these rumors at practice on Wednesday.

Franklin: “I am fiercely loyal to Penn State, to these players, to this staff…but there’s a lot of moving parts.”

— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) October 27, 2021

Franklin then deflected the question by saying that he’d like to talk about the rumors sometime.

Franklin on off-field coaching rumors: “I’d love to sit down with you guys over a beer and talk about this in detail.”

— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) October 27, 2021

Here’s the full answer:

You’ll surely see a lot of snippets from James Franklin’s response to @Ben_Jones88‘s question tonight, in which the Penn State coach says, in part, that he’s fiercely loyal to PSU/staff/players “but there’s a lot of moving parts with all of these things.” Here’s the full Q&A: pic.twitter.com/mzaUYYaGrc

— Greg Pickel (@GregPickel) October 27, 2021

Franklin has a win/loss record of 84-43 in his tenth year of head coaching. While Franklin didn’t give a definite answer about the rumors, it will still be an interesting story to follow.