Paul Finebaum rips James Franklin, refuses to rank Penn State highly: 'I'll believe it when I see it'

With the regular season just a couple of weeks away, the Preseason AP Top 25 Poll has finally been released. That included some notable and potentially controversial choices, like the Penn State Nittany Lions in their 12th season under James Franklin being ranked second overall.

Not everyone agreed with that choice, though. One pundit, in particular, was Paul Finebaum. He would appear on SportsCenter just hours after the poll was released. There, he ripped James Franklin in particular.

“Going back to [Heather Dinich’s] point about Penn State,” Paul Finebaum said. “I’ve heard the same thing about Penn State a number of times. I realize this is the best team on paper, but James Franklin is still the coach.”

Franklin first got to Penn State in 2014. At the time, the program had a proud history but was coming off of heavy sanctions and had just begun to rebuild under Bill O’Brien before he took off for the NFL. Since then, Franklin has found plenty of success in Happy Valley. He has gone 101-42, winning the Big Ten in 2016 and going to the College Football Playoff last season.

The problem for James Franklin and Penn State has been big games. Under Franklin in New Year’s Six and other CFP games, Penn State is 5-3. In the Big Ten Championship, they’re 1-1. Finally, against AP Top 25 opponents, they’re just 15-28. Those results have combined to give the perception that Franklin isn’t able to get over the hump at Penn State. In Finebaum’s case, he’ll need to see it to believe.

“So, you don’t get paper to rule,” Finebaum said. “You have to physically do it, and I’ll believe it when I see it, when Penn State actually wins a big game.”

As Paul Finebaum mentioned, he has beaten the drum against Penn State multiple times before during the offseason. In particular, he tends to call out James Franklin when he does so for those big game results. That is often in contrast to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, who thinks very highly of the Nittany Lions and their returning talent going into next season.

“Paul made quite the generalization there, when he said that Texas is everybody’s number one, because this person here has Penn State number one,” Dinich said on SportsCenter. “The reason is, when you look at preseason rankings, you should go with what you know. And when you look at seven of those top 10 teams, they have new quarterbacks. Penn State does not. Drew Allar is going to be back with better wide receivers. And James Franklin, the head coach at Penn State, has said and will tell you, this is the best personnel that he has had. That means staff and players… I mean, there’s no reason for Penn State, at least on paper, not to be the number one team going into this season.”

Penn State opens the season hosting Nevada on August 30th. There will be some major tests later on the schedule, though. That includes opening Big Ten play against Oregon on September 27th.