James Franklin had a lot of success as the Penn State head coach, but, as Ohio State football's Ryan Day knows, you have to deliver in the biggest moments.
In parts of 12 seasons in Happy Valley, Franklin won more than 100 games, a Big Ten Conference title in 2016, made it into the College Football Playoff, and came a few plays away from playing for a national championship.
Day, in his seventh season at Ohio State, has had even more success than Franklin did at PSU, with his nearly 90% win percentage, pair of Big Ten titles, and, as of January, a national title bolstering his resume.
But not too long before Day hoisted the CFP trophy, he was the subject of rumors and speculation, much like Franklin, that he would be fired for failing to succeed in the ways his university and fan base expected him to. So it's easy to see why Day would be complimentary of Franklin in the wake of his firing as PSU's head football coach.
“James, anytime you are somewhere for as long as he has, he did a lot of great things,” Day said [h/t Eleven Warriors' Chase Brown]. “We had a lot of great games against each other. He's gonna land on his feet. He's a really good coach.”
“But then you got to get back to work,” he continued. “That's the world we live in. It's something that, I think, for all of us, we need to make sure we focus on what matters to us and what's at hand. I said it before, whether it's the negative things or the positive things or things like that, those are all kind of noise out there. … There's a lot that comes at you, whether you're a player or a coach, our ability to focus and concentrate on what's important is what's critical, so that's what we got to do.”
In their head-to-head matchups, Day was 6-0 against Franklin. Even as an OSU assistant, he did not lose to Penn State; the Buckeyes' last defeat to PSU was in 2016, the year before Day was hired as co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Ohio State heads to Madison this week to take on OSU alum Luke Fickell and his floundering Wisconsin Badgers, who have lost their last four games, including each of their three Big Ten games, by at least two scores.
After that, Day and Ohio State will take the second and final bye week of the regular season before hosting Penn State, interim head coach Terry Smith, and first-year defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who was OSU's DC for the past three years.
