Jordan Rodgers pushes back on Paul Finebaum, defends James Franklin as elite coach

The Penn State Nittany Lions have seen their season get derailed, losing two straight Big Ten games. That includes a major upset loss to UCLA, which has put the Nittany Lions behind the eight-ball for the College Football Playoff. It’s also put immense pressure on head coach James Franklin.

Nationally, there’s been calls for a change in Happy Valley. In particular, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has shared multiple times that while he’s not advocating for Penn State to fire Franklin. At the same time, he does think that both sides need a refresh.

Finebaum again shared that opinion on Get Up the Tuesday following the UCLA loss. There, analyst and former quarterback Jordan Rodgers pushed back a bit on Finebaum. He’d praise Franklin as an elite coach in the sport while also acknowledging that the loss to UCLA has made for a very difficult situation.

“Yeah, that’s why I think things have changed a little bit in the perception of this program,” Jordan Rodgers said. “Because James Franklin could’ve survived that two-overtime loss to Oregon. I think people could swallow that. Didn’t like it, but they could understand that with a really good Oregon team, but you can’t lose to UCLA.”

The major criticism of James Franklin has proven to be big games and not getting over the hump to take Penn State from very good to elite. His record against AP Top-10 teams is just 4-21 after all. At the same time, up until the UCLA game, he hasn’t lost games he shouldn’t have.

“Honestly, that’s something that James Franklin hasn’t done. It’s been since 2021 to an Illinois team that he lost to a team that’s going to finish the season under .500,” Rodgers said. “Which I’m guessing UCLA will. So, he’s been able to sustain success in a way that I don’t think people have appreciated because of the big game record.”

This season was supposed to be the season Penn State got over the hump. The Nittany Lions retained several key players from last year’s team that made it to the College Football Playoff semifinal. That included quarterback Drew Allar. However, now Jordan Rodgers thinks that the decision to retain him, and not Beau Pribula, proved to be the mistake that put Penn State in this spot.

“I think this is getting exacerbated by one thing that nobody is really talking about as well. They chose the wrong quarterback. The quarterback that maybe could have led them to some victories is playing for Missouri right now,” Rodgers said. “An undefeated Missouri team that may be making a push for the College Football Playoff. This is the second time it’s happened. They also let Will Levis walk out the door in favor of Sean Clifford. So, it’s a lot of things, but James was my coach at Vanderbilt. I still think he’s elite. I still think he’s able to get this thing going in the right direction, even this season.”

There is still an outside shot that Penn State makes it to the CFP. However, the Nittany Lions probably need to be perfect the rest of the way to do so. That includes beating Ohio State and Indiana. First, however, Penn State needs to turn its attention to Northwestern.