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"There is nobody that would want this not to be talked about more than me. I'm hoping this is going to be over very quickly," he said. "I love Penn State, I love our players. I don't see that chang- ing any time soon. It's the nature of col- lege football, but I love Penn State, I love our players, I love what we're doing here. I don't see that changing any time soon. Hopefully, this conversation will be over very shortly." Six days later, it was over. In announc- ing the extension, Barbour said the uni- versity wanted to acknowledge Franklin's importance to its athletic and academic missions. "We are thrilled to have James as the head of our football program. We wanted to make a strong pledge to James and this program with this new contract," Barbour said. "James came to Penn State with a very clear vision, and we have seen that grow and prosper. What he has done to bring success to our program, both on and off the field, has been noth- ing short of spectacular. "James is a true Penn Stater with a commitment to the complete experience for our students by developing them ac- ademically, socially and on the field. Even more, he has embraced and been a pillar of the Happy Valley community since his arrival. James has won many games at Penn State and will continue to win many more, but what is more im- pressive is the number of lives he has impacted in our program and in our community." Barron, too, saluted Franklin's impact away from the playing field. "James has established important standards of excellence and academic achievement for our student-athletes, which is important for their develop- ment as productive contributors to soci- ety," he said. "I'm pleased we can look forward to more years of service and ac- complishment with James at the helm of our football program. I'm confident his teams will continue to achieve great success on and off the field." Franklin said the contract will help Penn State maintain a sense of continu- ity, and he also alluded to other aspects of the program that are being addressed with the new pact, aspects in which the Lions "need to take the next step." He has talked throughout his tenure about the need for top-notch facili- ties and his desire to hold onto his assistant coaches should they be approached about making lateral moves. There have been "a lot of different discussions between myself and Sandy Barbour and President Barron and also our board," Franklin said. "We sit down and have face to face, honest conver- sations about what we want to do and where we can be. And that's academi- cally, that's athletically, that's socially. That's the whole package. One of the things that I'm so excited about at Penn State is that we align with that. "Winning is really important, but it's so much more than wins here. So [it's im- portant] to be able to get in a room and talk through all these things and [say], what can we do? What can we do to con- tinue to make our community proud and the university proud and our lettermen proud? We keep chipping away at that. We continue to make significant progress, and we want to continue to do that. So that's where the contract is important." It also helps with recruiting. Said Franklin, "That's been a major point of conversation, recruits knowing and un- derstanding that I have a contract that's going to last throughout their career." ■ READY TO ROLL Franklin watches the Nittany Lions warm up prior to their game against Purdue earlier this season. The Lions went 7-2 during their most recent Big Ten campaign. Photo by Steve Manuel

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