Well according to you Ferentz can't recruit and isn't a top tier coach in the B1G

So I ask "...is Michigan his monkey of the back, signature win?", and your response is to talk about Iowa's coach?

I didn't say anything about Iowa being a signature win.

I guess I must have been seeing things when I thought I read Iowa and Michigan in your post.

My mistake.

A win  at Meatchicken might get him some recognition as a "good" coach but because of the losses  to OSU and MSU I doubt it will convince many doubters that he is the guy to take us to the next level.

Georgia Florida Washington Tennessee Ohio st Michigan Wisconsin is enough for me to know he’s a good coach.

As is the case with all things “forum”, this is just my opinion. That said, if Franklin gets by Iowa, Michigan ( the monkey) and thus run the table, I will give him credit for being as good as any current college coach in all phases of that job including Saban. I say that because Saban has had many years ahead of him to establish himself especially in recruiting. If he wins the rest of the games except Michigan I will view him as “coach in development “. After all, Michigan is still Michigan just like IBM is still IBM. If he beats Michigan yet loses to Iowa and Wisconsin I will be somewhat concerned but not ready to chase with pitchforks.....no monkey on his back but maybe a more noticeable Orangutan.  LOL, I think this is more of an op/ed than an opinion.

In my opinion, and yes - everybody has one, whether we win or lose is not the most important criteria in evaluating Franklin's performance.  I think that basic coaching skills such as player development (week to week improvement),  overall team preparation (motivation vs coming out flat), play selection & game/clock management are better measurements.  I believe that James is a good coach.  However before he can be considered "great" or "elite" he needs improvement in all these areas.  If a coach is highly skilled in these areas, the wins will usually come.

Win or lose I still think he's a good coach.  While some on here will measure him solely on wins I like to factor in other things such as education, grades, graduation and how are these young men being prepared for life.  Do i like to win?  Of course!!  But its an unfair expectation to expect wins week in and week out.  For the record, I picked OSU and Mich as the two games we'd get tripped up this year.

Even if he wins out this year, there is still room for growth and learning from all of our coaches on the staff.

I don’t know about that tsuga. A vey wise and respected man once said...” We ain’t come here to play school!”. I think it was Urban Meyer or Cliff  Klabun, somebody like that.

I guess that's fair... I assume it would take a 1 loss or 0 loss team to be elite. I think he can do it, but at least beating UM would get some people off his back in the short term. Hope he can.

I love this discussion, but I don't think it can be answered solely on Wins or Losses.  Elite coaches put the players in the best position to win, they do not make silly decisions that hurt the team.  Simple things like Clock Management, Play Calling, Use of Timeouts, when and not when to gamble.  These are the attributes that I am watching and hope to see improvements.

Southern has repeatedly said if a few players made some catches instead of dropping the ball, this team could be undefeated at this point - and I do believe that is TRUE!  All that being said, I am still seeing things done that even the weakest of Couch Coaches shake their heads at and wonder.

I cant buy southern's argument, especially that they could be undefeated...Football games between good teams always come down to turnovers, penalties, less mistakes, etc, etc..My favorite pro team is 3-4, and the fans argue, with some merit, they could be 5-2, they blew two 4th quarter leads of 14-17 points..A cynic would suggest they could be 1- 6 though, as they defended two red zones drives in last minute that would have resulted in defeats..

Generally, Bill Parcells is correct   "you are what your record says you are"...

We are exactly what our record says we are and that’s 5-2. I’m saying you don’t fire the coaches when you are 5-2 and had a chance to win the 2 games we lost. We are 15th in the country in total offense and 9th in scoring offense and some people want the OC out lol. Absolutely nothing wrong with the offense except drops and one fumble that cost us big time. IMO we just need to clean up a few things not fire coaches. That’s all I’m saying.

I do agree with you there southern..James Franklin can lose to Iowa, UM..and  still NOT be on the hotseat..He's nowhere near that status, He's done  a very good job..

As far  as coordinators, you know much  more about that than I do..watching every minute of every game..Just as  a general observation, I would say you never know anymore about them, as 1)college assistants don't stay put anymore as they used to, someone did an article on this recently, and 2)you never know what the head coach thinks of them, until after the season..and their continuing employ is very much dependent on the head man..Other than those caveats,, I would expect them back