James Franklin, on New Year’s Day, will be coaching his seventh bowl game as the head coach of Penn State, the second-most appearances of any head coach in program history.
He’s had an interesting go of things so far in his first six appearances with the Nittany Lions, going 3-3, with the last being the 2019 Cotton Bowl against Memphis.
In those six bowl games, three have been New Year’s Six bowls in the 2016, 2017 and 2019 seasons, respectively.
Franklin and Penn State are 2-1 in those New Year’s Six bowls, with wins against Washington in the 2017 Fiesta Bowl and Memphis in the 2019 Cotton Bowl.
The lone loss was a 52-49 thriller against USC in the 2017 Rose Bowl, which famously ended with a walk-off field goal from USC’s Matt Boermeester.
Surprisingly, in non-NY6 bowl games, Penn State is 1-2 in Franklin’s tenure, with losses to Georgia in the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl and Kentucky in the 2019 Citrus Bowl. The 2014 Pinstripe Bowl accounts for the win, Franklin’s first bowl game and bowl game win as Penn State’s head coach.
A win in the 2022 Outback Bowl would put him in second place all-time for most bowl game victories as a head coach in program history, breaking a tie with Rip Engle.
Looking back on Franklin’s career before Penn State, he was highly successful at Vanderbilt, getting them to a bowl game in each of his three years as head coach in Nashville.
From 2011-13, the Commodores put up two nine-win seasons and went 2-1 in bowl games, winning the 2012 Music City Bowl over NC State and the 2014 BBVA Compass Bowl over Houston. Vanderbilt ended up finishing in the Top 25 for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, respectively.
Since starting his coaching career in 1995, Franklin has been to 15 bowl games either as a head coach or assistant coach. His most successful bowl game results came during his two stints at Maryland, where the Terps went 4-1 in five bowl games between 2000-04 and 2008-10.
New Year’s Day will be his 16th bowl game appearance and with a win, he’ll have 10 bowl game wins on his resume, six of which as a head coach.
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