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The USC football program reportedly has “mutual interest” with a high-profile coach as it begins its search for the next Trojans head coach.
According to Dan Patrick on Wednesday’s episode of the Dan Patrick Show, the Trojans and Penn State Nittany Lions head coach have “mutual interest” for Franklin to replace Steve Sarkisian on the sidelines.
Of course, Franklin has denied any interest in the opening.
A source tells Dan that there's mutual interest between #USC and James Franklin for their Football Head Coaching job #Trojans pic.twitter.com/gSYAmUTi3B
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) September 15, 2021
Franklin addressed the USC head coaching vacancy earlier this week.
“As you guys know, I can’t stand any form of distractions. So I’ll discuss this today with the leadership council, so we can make sure all of our energy in on preparation with Auburn and that’s how we’ll handle it,” Franklin said during his Tuesday press conference.
But that has not been enough to stop the Franklin-USC rumors.
Franklin has long been a hot head coaching candidate and often finds himself linked to the marquee jobs in the country, so this is really nothing new. However, if Patrick’s sources do prove to be correct, it would be interesting to see when and if Franklin would abandon the Nittany Lions to head out west.
Penn State returns to action this weekend against the No. 22 Auburn Tigers, while USC is scheduled to take on Washington State.
