When the University of Southern California fired Clay Helton on Monday, it opened up the box for plenty of names to be rumored as the next coach. It's a list that includes a lot of names, including Penn State coach James Franklin.

Franklin's name has popped up many times before and he addressed the latest USC rumor linking his name on Tuesday during his press conference.

“As you guys know, I can’t stand any form of distractions so I’ll discuss this today with the leadership council so we can make sure all of our energy in on preparation with Auburn and that’s how we’ll handle it.”

It's not exactly taking his name out of the running and reassuring the Penn State faithful that he will be around for the long haul but, Franklin has been down this road before and has stayed with the Nittany Lions all along.

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Penn State is off to a great start this year that began with a win at Wisconsin. This Saturday, the No. 10 ranked Nittany Lions will welcome in No. 22 Auburn under the lights in Happy Valley.

For USC, Helton's time with the program had run its course long ago and many were surprised they stuck with him for this long. After an embarrassing loss in Week 2 to a Stanford team projected to have 3 or 4 wins this year, the Trojans brass had finally seen enough.

Who's next in line to take over is anyone's guess for now but Franklin seems pretty content at Penn State.