Big Ten Football: 3 most overrated head coaches ahead of 2023

I’ve been saying James Franklin is overrated for years, so maybe this is just a personal opinion, but I just don’t see what the hype is about. I’ve seen lists this offseason with Franklin listed as one of the top 10 head coaches in college football which is just insane to me.

After starting his head coaching career at Vanderbilt, Franklin excelled and was hired to replace Bill O’Brien in Happy Valley. He went 7-6 in his first two seasons before winning 11 games — this actually becomes a trend.

Following that first 11-win season, Franklin won 11 in two of his next three campaigns before going 11-11 in 2020 and 2021 combined. He then won 11 once again in 2022. While he does have four 11-win seasons in nine seasons, when he’s not winning 11, he’s usually coaching a very disappointing and underwhelming team.

In fact, he has only won more than seven games in one of his five non-11-win seasons.

Basically, if Franklin isn’t winning 11 games, he’s losing at least 5-6 games and coaching an uber-talented team to disappointment.

Franklin is a heck of a recruiter, but he falls short on the field about 50 percent of the time. Tell me how he’s a top-10 coach in the nation.