Each year Bruce Feldman of The Athletic compiles a list of who he feels are the top 25 head coaches in college football and to no one's surprise James Franklin is on this year's list.
Franklin comes in at No. 9 overall, which is a slight drop from the top five ranking that he has received in each of the past two seasons. However despite a few down years in State College, he is still easily considered one of the top coaches in the country.
Franklin is the second highest ranked Big Ten coach on the list behind No. 4 Ryan Day (Ohio State) and just above No. 12 Jim Harbaugh (Michigan), No. 18 Kirk Ferentz (Iowa), No. 21 PJ Fleck (Minnesota), No. 22 Paul Chryst (Wisconsin) and Pat Fitzgerald who finished in the "just missed the cut" section of the article.
To learn more about what Feldman thinks of Franklin, you can read his thoughts below.
"He’s gone from being a top 5 coach to being close to slipping out of my top 10 after consecutive 4-5 seasons in Big Ten play (11-11 overall). Before that, it was stellar. Franklin took over a program reeling from hefty sanctions and by Year 3 had led the Nittany Lions to a Big Ten title. He’s had three 11-win seasons in Happy Valley and produced a lot of talent. His work at Vanderbilt was even more impressive, leading the Commodores to Top 25 finishes in two of his three seasons. Vanderbilt hadn’t finished in the Top 25 in more than 60 years and has gone 29-65 since he left."
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