I think it's fair to say that former Penn State head coach James Franklin did a lot of good for the program, but his time in Happy Valley ran dry.
That isn't to say that Franklin wasn't an excellent head coach and we shouldn't appreciate what he did, but he took Penn State from a place in which it needed help, got it back to the level we all know it should be at, and couldn't get it past that.
It's unfortunate that Franklin wasn't the guy who could take this team to the next heights, as that was the only thing it was missing.
Outside of that, Penn State was an elite team year in and year out outside of last season, which led to the biggest change the program has made in a rather long time.
In Franklin's defense, it's definitely tough to argue with him if he felt upset or slighted that Penn State went in that direction. Not because the Nittany Lions didn't need to make a change, but his prior success definitely brought a lot of life back into the program, and just less than a year prior to that, Penn State was playing for a chance to make the national championship.
The longtime head coach is now at Virginia Tech, and he has every right to feel the way he did with his latest comments, saying that there's a chip on his shoulder to get back to a position to win a national title.
"When you build something, and you're so close, I mean six games earlier we're playing for a national championship, when you're that close to doing something ... you're so proud," Franklin said recently on Next Up with Adam Breneman, H/T Heavy. "Every piece of that building (at Penn State), we built. Every single piece, every aspect, the fields, the building. We took so much pride, so proud of what we built there. Then, all the sudden you're starting over again.
"I'm 54 years old. I didn't feel I'd be starting over. So, there's a chip. There's a chip that I'm in this position. I've got a chip on my shoulder that I put my family in this position. And I've got a chip that I feel like all those players, I created disruption in their life that we didn't need, and I'm not going to let it happen again, ever."
I was very surprised that Franklin ended up taking the Virginia Tech job when he did. I thought that if he waited, he would have been a much better hire at a different place.
Virginia Tech is an incredible academic school, has a gorgeous campus, and other benefits. However, it is typically one of the bottom feeders in the ACC, and Franklin is now charged with trying to fix that.