To the shock of the college football world, late Monday evening USC fired head coach Clay Helton after just two games into the season. The final straw apparently was SC’s loss this past weekend to Stanford. And while the Trojans have an interim coach for the rest of the season, the quest is now on to find a new head coach.

Several big names have been mentioned including Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and Luke Fickell of Cincinnati, but the one name that seems to stand out is former Vanderbilt head coach and current Penn State coach James Franklin.

On their show, “McElroy and Cubelic In the Morning” on WJOX radio out of Birmingham, Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic discuss whether or not Franklin would be the ideal fit for the SC job.

McElroy seems to think that Penn State is ready for Franklin to go.

“Penn State fans will tell you to please take James Franklin,” he said.

McElroy believes Franklin might be willing to listen because of the disconnect between him and the fan base.

“I’m not sure James Franklin has been totally accepted by Penn State so I think he’d listen.”

While Franklin is considered one of the top contenders for the job, Fickell is mentioned for the job partly because of his connection to Athletics Director Mike Bohn, who was previously at Cincinnati.