New coach
- Thread starter NOYDB
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Larry Johnson was not offered "the exact same job" by Franklin that he had under Paterno and O'Brien. While I'm not privy to his thinking, that could have been sufficient reason for him to leave Penn State.
Larry Johnson was hired by Urban Meyer.
He was undeniably the best defensive line coach in the country. Are you saying CJF offered him a lesser position? If so, I didn't know that. What could CJF have offered him that's lower than a position coach?
An "assistant" position coach. My impression was that Franklin did not want Larry Johnson around.
I think the big issue was simply that Franklin essentially brought nearly his entire staff from Vanderbilt with him. I doubt that Franklin specifically "selected" Johnson as a guy he didn't want to keep.
Back then you could only have a 9 man coaching staff. Franklin brought 7 of his guys from Vandy:
OC - John Donovan
QB - Ricky Rahne
WR - Josh Gattis
OL - Herb Hand
DC - Bob Shoop
DL - Sean Spencer
LB - Brent Pry
The only guys Franklin did not bring with him from Vandy were George Barlow (a DB coach who went to NC State), and Charles Bankins (a Special Teams coach who stayed on at Vandy to be a RB coach).
Franklin needed a RB coach and a DB coach to complete his PSU staff. So Franklin filled out his staff with:
RB - Charlie Huff (Western Michigan)
DB - Terry Smith (Temple)
I guess I don’t, which is why I’m asking. Are we supposed to feel bad for them because they lost their coach? Help a brother out here.
EDIT: I added additional context in my reply to @LionJim below.
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I guess. I totally understand why ISU players (and fans) might be upset. But what I don’t get is why I, or any Penn State fan, should now be pulling for them. Is it because they lost a well-liked coach, or because we now have their well-liked coach?
Did PSU fans feel this way about Vandy when Franklin was hired? I know I didn’t (even though I do find myself rooting for them now). Do VT fans feel this way about PSU?
It’s college football. Coaches come and go all the time. To me, it’s like if the CEO of AMD left to run Nvidia. While AMD employees might be disappointed, as an Nvidia shareholder, I’m not going to go out and buy AMD stock and hope the company’s earnings beat expectations.
Oh well, I guess I should just be happy that Duke beat Virginia in overtime to win the ACC Championship last night, even if they will be screwed out of the playoffs.
He took "the exact same job" that he had under Paterno and O'Brien because he wasn't offered "the same exact job" by Franklin. Are you faulting s person who was dismissed or demoted for finding gainful employment elsewhere?
He wasn't demoted or asked to leave. They wanted him to stay. He wanted to be the HC.
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Don't know the intricacies of what took place behind the scenes. Believe we can agree that Franklin did not want Johnson has his DL coach, which was his right. Given those circumstances, don't understand why some begrudge Johnson for finding work elsewhere.
Johnson was offered the position of assistant DL coach, reporting to/working for Sean Spencer.
There was no such thing, at that time.
Coaching staffs were limited to a Head Coach and 9 assistants.
Not like the current free-for-all.
The options for Franklin were:
1) Keep Johnson, leave Spencer behind
2) Bring in Spencer, Johnson is out
or
3) Keep Johnson and bring in Spencer, and have another coach cover two position groups (that, obviously, was not going to happen)
"No such thing at the time?" Titles for assistant coaches are made up all the time, though I won't stick to a literal "assistant defensive line coach" in this case.
Coaching responsibilities are also split up in different ways, there isn't one standard. Penn State had two OL coaches for years: Dick Anderson for centers/guards and Bill Kenney for tackles and tight ends. Shoop could have taken CBs as well as safeties, he'd done it before. I don't know how the responsibilities would have been divided or what it would have been called, but that was the thinking. Was not Franklin's idea. He wanted Sean Spencer and he wanted Larry Johnson gone. Again, his prerogative.
I'm not making an argument in favor of either coach. In January 2014, Larry Johnson was faced with the alternative of staying at PSU in a diminished capacity or seeking employment elsewhere. It also wouldn't have taken a particularly skillful fortune teller to predict that the accommodation wasn't likely to work out well and who was drawing the short straw.
I do not remember when it changed, but there was a time when the number of coaches was limited.
I believe, that is why there were a bunch of "analyst" positions created. But the analyst could not work with the players.
In 2014 there was a limit of nine assistants that could coach on-field. Don't think that Larry Johnson was interested in an analyst role, which would have been a demotion.