President Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize and Penn State football coach “Big Game James” Franklin failed to win a football game for the third straight weekend. Only here might you read how those two disparate situations share something in common.
Friends and enemies alike came out before and after the latest peace prize announcement to note Trump deserved it. When you have leftist media outlets such as CNN, The Hill and Newsweek making Trump’s case, along with Vladimir Putin, you have an unusual grouping, sort of like the modern Democrat Party.
Alas, Trump did not win the prize. As an aside, I always found it ironic in the extreme that Nobel prizes, including for peace, are named after Alfred Nobel, the guy who invented dynamite. Nothing says peace like blowing up something.
Moving on, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a Venezuelan woman whose name was not exactly on the lips of the world, sang the praises of Trump’s peace efforts!
In an email exchange a week or so before the announcement, I had assured a cousin that Trump would not win because he doesn’t tick the right boxes of this leftist-run organization. I did add that should I be wrong and Trump did win, he ought to refuse the reward and call it out for the shallow PR stunt it has become.
It was curious to hear some from the Nobel crowd suggest that what Trump did in terms of bringing peace throughout the world in less than a year in office, including brokering the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, came too late in the cycle and might be considered next year.
Explain, then, how Barack Hussein Obama was nominated for the award after less than TWO WEEKS in office and, of course, won it months later. It was fitting that the hope and change guy won a Nobel prize for something he promised, but did not deliver.
Allow me to put on my cynic’s hat here and suggest just maybe Obama’s win had something to do with him not being a white male.
I am not alone on that front. Megyn Kelly, prominent media figure and former Fox News host, fell under Trump’s attack for months after she grilled him about being an alleged mysoginist during a debate.
But Kelly has become a huge Trump supporter and called out the Nobel people as leftists promoting leftists and sullying their brand in the process of ignoring success from those on the political right.
That brings us to Franklin. For many reasons, including DEI, in the past there has been a rush to deify Franklin, as represented by contract extensions and massive salaries.
Franklin has been portrayed as a savior of a once-proud football program. Not exactly.
If a coach can’t win at Penn State in this era, well, he’s not much of a coach.
Bill O’Brien inherited Penn State after Joe Paterno’s departure, with the program at a low ebb both on the field and off it due to sexual abuse of children by former long-time assisant coach Jerry Sandusky and the school’s failure to report it.
O’Brien faced scholarship limits and a four-season bowl ban among his challenges.
Yet, Penn State won at a .625 clip during his two years.
Penn State’s win rate under Franklin is .717. That’s better, but is it really that much improved considering he’s operating with full scholarships and bowl eligibility to allow recruitment of better players?
O’Brien’s Big Ten winning percentage was .625, while Franklin’s is .660.
Franklin’s success rate against Top 10 competition is an abysmal .160!
During O’Brien’s stay, the Penn State program was populated by players either who stayed out of a strong sense of loyalty, or came for the twin reasons of facing a challenge and not having better offers.
By the way, Paterno’s win percentage was .749. He also coached two national championship teams and arguably deserved a third with his unbeaten 1994 team.
The Penn State football program is in freefall under Franklin. He painted this as his best team in terms of talent, depth and coaching staff. The Nittany Lions were ranked as high as No. 2 nationally.
Then they lost at home to a talented Oregon team (which since has lost to Indiana), went on the road to be shocked by previously winless UCLA, then returned to Beaver Stadium to drop a homecoming contest to Northwestern Saturday.
Penn State is making history of the negative variety. It’s been more than 30 years since a college team at Penn State’s level managed to lose back-to-back games in which it was favored by 20 points or more.
Fans are wearing bags on their heads and screaming for Franklin’s firing.
Somehow, they expected more from a team that pays the head man in excess of $8 million a year, imported a new defensive coordinator at $3 million a year for three years, has a quarterback (now injured) pulling down $3 million in name, image, likeness (NIL) money and has total NIL income for the roster at a reported $14 million for 2025.
But, the man they call – sarcastically – “Big Game James” has a contract that would require a buyout reported to be $56 million or so should Penn State brass do the right thing and show him the door.
The hit would be a lot less if Franklin left on his own and went elsewhere in pursuit of another deification process.
Franklin said in the aftermath of the Northwestern loss how commited he was to his players and to righting the sinking ship. But, the best thing Franklin could do now would be to leave that ship and give someone else a chance at the helm.
Don’t bet on that happening. It’s as much a fool’s errand as betting on Franklin to win big games, or Trump to win a Nobel prize.
Sam Ross Jr's site 