Blue White Illustrated

t the press conference seven years ago in which he was introduced as Penn State's new head football coach, James Franklin told a story about how badly he had wanted to play for the Nittany Lions as a high school quarterback growing up in Langhorne, Pa. The summer of his junior year, he decided to attend a Penn State camp. The aspiring young Lion filled out a ques- tionnaire, put it in the mail and showed up on campus. Next stop, college football stardom. Or so Franklin thought. "I remember I came to camp here when I was in 11th grade. Coach Caldwell was the quarterbacks coach," he said, referring to Jim Caldwell, future head coach of the Indi- anapolis Colts and Detroit Lions. "I thought I was good enough to play at Penn State. "I was not." Franklin ended up instead at East Stroudsburg, where he went on to set seven school records. At his level – Division II – he was a huge success. But his level was not Penn State's level, and the brief trip down memory lane was intended as a laugh line, a mo- ment of self-deprecation that wasn't going to cost him any credibility at Penn State be- cause everyone understood that major-col- lege stardom was not a prerequisite for coaching success. For every Steve Spurrier, there were a dozen Dabo Swinneys, guys who weren't destined to vie for the Heisman Tro- phy but who were driven and analytical and had the kind of leadership potential that transcended on-field superstardom. Franklin was going to be another one of those guys at Penn State. And he has been another one of those guys, going 60-28 and winning a Big Ten champi- onship along with a couple of New Year's Six bowls. But during the past two off-seasons, Franklin has hired some assistant coaches whose college bios are never going to be used for the purposes of self-deprecation. A year ago, he brought in Taylor Stubblefield to work with the wide receivers and Phil Trautwein to oversee the offensive line. Stub- blefield set an NCAA record by catching 325 passes in his career at Purdue, while Trautwein won first-team All- Southeastern Conference honors playing for Florida's 2008 national championship squad. Last month, Franklin brought in his most accomplished former player yet. Anthony Poindexter, who was hired in late February to take charge of the safeties follow- ing Tim Banks's departure for Tennessee, is a newly minted Col- MODEL CITIZENS A Penn State players and future recruits would no doubt love to emulate the careers of several of the more recent additions to the Nittany Lions' assistant coaching staff HUDDLE UP Poindexter spent the past four seasons at Purdue. Before that, he was at Connecticut and Virginia, his alma mater. Photo courtesy of Purdue Ath- letics >>

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