Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
until you actually get there, that's when you find out the real deal. One of the things that we've done from an NCAA perspective, from a Big Ten perspective and then just from a Penn State perspective, is that we've put a lot of rules and policies and proce- dures in place that make it very difficult to do the job, [policies] that I would say very few places in the country have. So schools that we're competing against, they could get something done in 48 hours, [whereas] it may take us six months to a year because of all the poli- cies and procedures that were put in place when this happened. One of the things for us to do is, we just need to take a minute and step back and say, OK, this happened. We had this reaction and made these choices and put these policies and procedures in place. Now, after seven or eight years, are these still the right things that we should be doing for the university as a whole, for the athletic department, and for the foot- ball program? Let's just now take a step back, as you should at any time, and say, OK, the things we're doing, are they the right things to be doing for Penn State moving forward? BWI Do you feel as though you're in a position at this point to have that voice and advocate for that? FRANKLIN I think you always have a voice and you always have the ability to advocate. Now, where that goes and what happens, we'll see. But I'm very proud of what we've been able to do. You look at our success in the past three years, and we're in a very elite group of schools that have been consistently suc- cessful. But we've got to continue to grow and continue to evolve. That's one of the next steps for us. It goes back to studying best practices. When I say best practices, I think sometimes that's mis- interpreted. When we study what schools X, Y and Z are doing, I'm not saying we've got to do what X, Y and Z are doing. But we had better be aware of what X, Y and Z are doing, and the things [they do] that make sense for Penn State, we need to consider those things. The other thing is, every once in a while we need to be the trendsetter. We need to be the one that's going to be bold and aggressive and daring in a cer- tain area. I don't know if that's neces- sarily who we've been, or if it aligns with who we've been. And then I would also say, part of studying that best practice is having an awareness of what these other football programs and athletic departments are doing, as well as the university, because the programs that we're competing with, there's total alignment with the board, the president, the AD, the head coach and the boosters. Everybody is re- ally working together. When you go back to that question about the voice and being able to advocate, I would hope that what our six years have done [has been to] build credibility and build trust that we've got a guy as the head football coach who isn't a win-at-all-costs guy, who aligns with who we are culturally, and who we can trust so that we can all work together to do what's best for the university, for the athletic department and for the football program. I think that's what you hope over six years, that you've built enough trust and relation- ships with the people throughout the campus that they know where your heart is and what you're trying to do. BWI Does the contract extension for Sandy Barbour help that process? FRANKLIN I think stability always helps. If you have a president who's got stability and you've got an AD who's got stability and you've got a head coach who's got stability, then that helps. That helps because really, the decisions that we're talking about making, they're not short-term decisions. They're long- term decisions. And the reality is, it's hard to make long-term decisions when you don't have people in leadership po- sitions who are going to be here long term. BWI You've had support staff and members of your coaching staff who were with you at Vanderbilt and are still with you as you get ready for your sixth season at Penn State. How much of an asset have those people been as you work toward realizing your vision for this program? FRANKLIN Really important. And I think it's magnified now. A lot of times, that is concerning and troubling for our community because they're not used to [staff movement]. They're not used to the turnover and the change, but again, that's understanding college football and that's understanding the climate that's out there. But we would like to have as much of that consistency as we possibly can have, because I do think ex- perience and consistency are important. It saves a lot of time and allows you to be a lot more efficient when [football sports information director Kris Pe- tersen] knows what I want to do and I also know what K.P. wants to do, and how and why. Same thing with Todd Kulka in academics. Same thing with Dwight Galt in the weight room. Same thing with Brent Pry, and so on and so forth. We can have some really good conversations so that they don't waste their time trying to do something that they know I won't be comfortable with, and vice versa. BWI In regards to being bold, you've been able to spearhead some facilities improvements in the past three years. FRANKLIN I am so appreciative of what we've been able to do, and it's made a huge impact. And for us, we've done the stuff that affects the players first. We've done, I think, $29 million in five years, and it was needed. I'll give you a couple of examples, though. In two years, Wake Forest did $90 million. In five years, Duke did $275 million. Northwestern [spent $270 million on its new indoor facility]. We can list out a long list. One of the things that's been really valuable is, I've been going to this lead- ership summit every single year that is run by basically all of the leaders of the Special Ops units. So, Green Berets and Navy SEALs, and it's been really cool. So it's them, and then it's ADs and some basketball head coaches and football head coaches. The first year, it was at Texas A&M, last year it was at Ken- tucky, this year it was in North Car-