LSU coaching search: Jordan Rodgers pitches James Franklin as ideal candidate

It’s been just three days since Brian Kelly was abruptly fired Sunday after 3 1/2 seasons as LSU‘s head coach, and already there are more than a dozen potential names being volleyed around as his replacement. Everyone from Lane Kiffin to Nick Saban to Ed Orgeron have been mentioned in connection to the newest Power Four opening in Baton Rouge.

But when it comes down to it, ESPN and SEC Network analyst Jordan Rodgers has only one name he thinks can return LSU to its former glory — former Penn State coach James Franklin, who was fired on Oct. 12 after 12 seasons in Happy Valley.

“I think it’s James Franklin. And I don’t care if LSU fans right away don’t like it, because you need a guy that can come in there from a leadership perspective and inject new energy. He was my coach at Vandy, there’s nobody that can motivate you and turn around the aura of a program like James Franklin can,” Rodgers said Wednesday afternoon on ESPN‘s SportsCenter. “And yes, he didn’t beat Ohio State and Michigan consistently when he needed to. But when did he ever have the more talented roster there? You plug him in at LSU, from a recruiting and NIL standpoint, he’s going to have one of the most talented rosters. You accompany that with his leadership, a great scheme on offense – which I think would be an important hire from James – I think that would be a great marriage. Forget about fit, forget about (him not being) a Southern guy, that doesn’t matter. You win games, (LSU fans) will be happy.”

Franklin was fired in mid-October after the Nittany Lions lost three straight in Big Ten play beginning with a disappointing 30-24 home loss to Oregon in University Park. Lackadaiscal efforts in subsequent losses at UCLA and at home to Northwestern proved too much for Penn State boosters to bear and he was let go after going 104-45 overall in 12 seasons.

Of course, Franklin is an unknown to SEC fans after leading ex-SEC cellar-dweller Vanderbilt to back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2012-13 before leaving to take over the Nittany Lions in 2014. Franklin went 24-15 overall and 11-13 in SEC across three seasons (2011-13) in Nashville, infusing life into a Commodores program hasn’t won nine games in a single season since he left and only four times in its 135-year history.