I am so glad someone in national media fianlly said what Ive been saying for years. For as good of a job Franklin did (and this is in no way disparaging that fact that he is the best Vanderbilt Coach since Mcgugin), his first 2 years were directly on the backs of guys who came in to play for Bobby Johnson. The idea that he came in to a cupboard bare team that had 0 culture or talent always bothered me because Johnson had actually built us into a competitive program within the SEC. We didnt have the dogs to keep up with the (at the time) Florida/LSU teams, but Johnson had built us into a team that was gonna fight for 60 minutes.
Now did Franklin elevate that talent to new levels and build up the teams culture to the level of not just competing, but winning SEC games consistently? 100% yes.
But the cupboard was nowhere near bare when he got there. And I wish more people (in national media) would give Johnson his flowers for that.
(also says something about Mason with how quickly he killed 10 years of build up culture and positivity behind the program)
