A big and significant development in the coaching carousel occurred Monday night when it was reported that Penn State head coach James Franklin switched agents, Franklin said on Tuesday that he switched representation over the summer.
What’s even more impactful and notable is that he switched to college football superagent Jimmy Sexton, who represents the heavyweight coaches in the sport, especially in the SEC.
Football Scoop broke the story about Franklin switching to Sexton.
Here’s the key paragraph from their story, which we quoted in our own newser on the matter:
Sexton’s client list is a veritable Who’s Who of college coaches, including but not limited to Alabama’s Nick Saban, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Florida coach Dan Mullen, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian and formerly Hall of Fame Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, among myriad others.
You can put two and two together and see that a Sexton client is likely to go to the SEC.
Add this point to the mix, noting that Scott Woodward (whom we have written about here at Trojans Wire) is LSU’s athletic director:
Scott Woodward has a good relationship with Jimmy Sexton 👀 https://t.co/ci0rYXfoUL
— Patrick Conn (@PatrickConnCFB) October 26, 2021
Jimmy Sexton doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a done deal that James Franklin is gone and that he will certainly leave Penn State. However, it does mean that Franklin knows he is in a position to gain a lot of money one way or the other in the coming months.
Sexton will force Penn State to fork over a massive amount of money if it wants to keep Franklin. LSU is deep-pocketed and has the institutional muscle and desire to pay top dollar for a candidate, more than USC. Trojan fans might not want to hear that, but it’s the truth. (“It just means more,” to quote a familiar saying.)
The fact that Scott Woodward and Sexton get along well — Sexton is Jimbo Fisher’s agent, and Woodward hired Fisher when he was AD at Texas A&M — offers a crucial piece of evidence that points to James Franklin being LSU’s No. 1 target at this point.
Key detail: This points to Franklin. More precisely, it doesn’t guarantee that Franklin is going to Baton Rouge. It doesn’t mean this is a wrap and it’s all done and dusted. It just means that LSU has made a significant advancement in the pursuit and that we have — via Franklin’s choice of agent — an important statement from the coach himself about what he is inclined to do.
Could Jimmy Sexton steer his client to Los Angeles and USC? It’s possible … but this does mean USC would have to win a bidding war with LSU. Knowing what we know, and seeing what we have seen from the two schools, which one is more likely to win that bidding war and give a Jimmy Sexton client maximum money?
It’s not USC, and I’m not going out on a limb in saying that.
Nothing’s final. Nothing is set in stone.
However, if you are a betting person, the odds of James Franklin going to LSU instead of USC just surged in the past 24 hours.
