It was the level of failure, combined with all the money that got pumped into this season to give him his shot for a national championship. All the NIL money to bring everyone back and fill in the holes. The 3 million for Knowles.
Franklin himself said that this is the best personnel and staff he’s ever had.
And then he managed to accomplish back to back failures that hadn’t happened in decades. First he showed that he still can’t put together an offense that can deliver in big games in the loss to Oregon, but the goal was still technically on the table. Then he becomes the first coach in 40 years to lose as a top 10 team to an 0-4 team. The closest thing I can remember to that was USC losing to 1-3 Stanford in 2007 as a 40 point favorite, but they rallied and won the pac 12 for the 5th consecutive time and Carrol won 2 national championships. Then, still not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, he had to right the ship at home against northwestern as a 20 point favorite again at homecoming. Instead he became the first coach in over 30 years to lose back to back games as a 20 point favorite.
And more than anything, he’s clearly unable to develop a quarterback, doesn’t know how to hire someone who can, can’t recruit quarterbacks, and doesn’t know how to identify if he has a quarterback who can win him a championship. Convinced that Drew Allar was that guy, he got the money and convinced Allar to stay for this year. Then he let Allar announce that he was coming back before the playoffs started so Pribula immediately entered the transfer portal before the playoffs started. This team would have been closer to a national championship with Pribula this season. A lot of people thought that late last year, but the guy whose job it is to know that couldn’t see it.
Contrast that with Ohio state and Kyle McCord. They identified that he wasn’t going to win them a national championship so they brought in someone who could do it and they won it.