Cal Football: Tony Franklin, Who Tutored Jared Goff, Retires on His Terms

Former Cal OC, a one-of-a-kind, worked most recently at Middle Tennessee

Tony Franklin, whose efforts as offensive coordinator at Cal helped Jared Goff become the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL draft pick, announced his retirement from coaching after a career that spanned 40 years.

Franklin, 63, has spent the past five years at Middle Tennessee State. He left Cal after Goff’s final season of 2015 in order to be closer to family.

Always an iconoclast and viewed by some in the sport as an outsider, Franklin shared his retirement announcement via social media.

Franklin, who was signed to coach at MTSU through 2023 at a salary that would have paid him $350,000 his final season, called his 1,900-word essay “a love letter. A letter of resignation to a way of life, a way of comfort and ease.”

But it’s like no love letter you’ve ever read.

"Football is not a contact sport. It’s a violent game. If played the way it must be played to maximize success, you must mentally and physically condition a group of young boys, or men, to have little to no regards for their health, or the health of their opponents. You must swarm to the football and destroy everything on your pathway to reach it.

"Over the years I have been both the destroyer and the 'destroyee' as a player and as a coach. I’ve witnessed and partaken in the splattering of brain cells and the breaking of bones. And on November 21, 2020 at the ripe young age of 63, I ended this violent experiment in an unexpected final game of the 2020 season at Troy University.

“It is time to discover what I want to do when I grow up.”

The Blue Raiders beat Troy 20-17 in their season finale after losing to their rival from Alabama 47-14 two months earlier.

Franklin followed Sonny Dykes from Louisiana Tech to Cal and was Goff’s quarterback tutor. By his junior season in 2015, Goff passed for 4,714 yards and 43 touchdowns, leading the Bears to an 8-5 record and a bowl victory.

In a surprise move, Franklin left Cal in January after the season for MTSU, where he was reunited with coach Rick Stockstill, for whom he had coached at the school in 2009.

But that wasn’t his motivation for departing Cal.

“I didn’t leave for Middle Tennessee. I left Cal to go home,” Franklin told me at the time. “I made a decision to go home before I got the job at Middle Tennessee. … It’s time to go be a good son, a good dad and a good granddad.”

Franklin was a good fit in Berkeley. Curious and liberal, he lived with his wife in Berkeley, and would walk to work, winding through the campus to Memorial Stadium, sometimes stopping to talk to those he encountered.

Even in Mufreesboro, TN, Franklin remained outspoken on social issues, sharing his thoughts on social media about Donald Trump or the coronavirus.

And he wasn’t afraid to take on the college football establishment. In 2001, he wrote a book, “Fourth Down And Life To Go," a look at “Lessons learned from the good, the bad and the ugly experiences of Kentucky football.”

Franklin spent two decades coaching high school, so his perspective of the profession is hardly mainstream.

“The football life I’ve lived has been one of a peasant, as well a prince. I made $250 my first coaching gig and I’ve made over $3 million total the last eight seasons,” he wrote. “I’ll profess the years where I made less than $10,000 as a high school coach were much harder work than the luxury life of being a college coach. Listening to college coaches who are making six and seven figure incomes bitch about how difficult their life is makes me excited to move back into the world of realistic and appreciative workers.”

Franklin said those high school coaching experiences were some of his favorite years. One of those players, whom he identified as “Johnny Cobra,” is his favorite ex-player. He said the MTSU teams of the past two seasons are special to him, even though neither had a winning record.

I’m not a “big-name” coach, though I’ve had my share of recognizable successes. I’ve been labeled an innovative offensive guru, as well as an epic failure. I’ve won championships and I’ve gone 1–11,” he said, referring to his first season with Dykes at Cal in 2013, when Goff put up big numbers but they rarely added up to victory.

“I’ve been paid more money than anyone should be paid for coaching a game that some men would do for free. Most of my peers in my profession would recognize my name well enough to have a strong opinion as to whether I was worthy of accolades, hatred, or indifference.”

Franklin acknowledged he hasn’t always said or done the right thing. He apologized for past mistakes but also know he has had a positive impact are far more young men.

He ends his letter this way:

Thank you, football, but most of all thank you to the young men who gave me a 40-year football life full of competition, love, respect, friendships, and satisfaction. I can never repay you for this amazing journey you allowed me to live with you. I never loved this game, but I loved, respected, and cherished the young men courageous, talented, and empathetic enough to play it.

Coach Tony Franklin

PS- To those who wonder if I will continue my war on the cowards of the college football world who have shown horrendous leadership in our greatest time of need, you need not wonder. That fight has just begun. Stay tuned.

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COVER PHOTO BY MICHAEL PIMENTEL

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo