Many people might look at Penn State's decision Sunday to fire longtime head coach James Franklin as a move that had to be made, despite his record of 104-45 during 12 seasons at Happy Valley.
From a human perspective, it's somewhat sad. Franklin is widely regarded as a class act in a profession that can be a cesspool. But while we at Green, Gold, and Bold don't celebrate Penn State's misery, you know who ought to be at least a little bit happy about this, even though they won't dare say it out loud?
USF, that's who.
Bulls coach Alex Golesh will likely be at or near the top of many lists to fill coaching vacancies after this season, but Franklin just moved to the head of the line of sought-after hires -- that is, if he doesn't decide to take a year's sabbatical after the meatgrinder from which he was just evicted.
Franklin gets a $49 million buyout from Penn State, so the boosters need to dig deep into their pockets for this one. But that's their problem. They created this mess and now they'll have to sweep it up.
Franklin's departure puts a white-hot spotlight on the fickle nature of college football on the level at which Penn State plays. The Nittany Lions won 13 games last season, including two in the playoffs before losing 27-24 to Notre Dame in the semifinals.
They came into this season as a chic pick to win the national championship, and the season started with three straight wins. So far, so good.
But a close home-field loss to Oregon was followed by an inexplicable (at the time) loss at winless UCLA, which had looked hopeless. A 22-21 home loss Saturday to Northwestern left Penn State's season in tatters with boos raining down from all corners of now-Unhappy Valley.
The domino effect from Penn State's action will reverberate throughout college football.
This is a big-boy job, so the Nittanys will go for a headline-grabbing name they believe will do better than Franklin's 4-21 record against AP Top-10 opponents, including 1-18 against Top-10 Big Ten teams.
Meanwhile, other power conference schools could look at Franklin and think, "hmmmm,,,,,"
Michigan State, for instance, The Spartans are struggling under Jonathan Smith, including an embarrassing 38-13 home-field loss Saturday to UCLA.
Wait, what? UCLA hadn't even held a lead until the Bruins beat Penn State under interim coach Jerry Neuheisel. That's another job to which Golesh was linked, but Neuheisel seems to have the inside track on that one.
But Spartans Wire is already lining up successors if Johnson gets a copy of the home game, and guess who is No. 3 on the list?
Yep, Alex Golesh.
But James Franklin is No. 2, and that's before he was fired.
Oklahoma State speculators have Golesh near the head of the line for that job,
Sports Illustrated lists Golesh as the top potential candidate if/when the Florida Gators move on from Billy Napier.
Arkansas could also be in the mix, and there will be others.
My guess is that it will take something more than a middling Power 4 job to lure Golesh away from a great situation he has at USF. And with Franklin now on the open market, he could eventually take one of the top-tier open jobs.
If that happens, USF may offer its thanks.