Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503568
A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T H E B I G P I C T U R E / / / / / / / The veteran coach recently sat down with BWI to discuss some of the major issues facing PSU amid college football's constant swirl of change. BWI: This is your 10th season at Penn State. FRANKLIN: Crazy. Third president, third AD. People forget that. It's very un- usual. BWI: Are you proud of that, having been here as long as you have? FRANKLIN: My wife and I were just talking about this the other day. It's hard to predict that, especially in today's col- lege football. In my first nine years in coaching, I think I lived in nine different states or countries. To be somewhere for 10 years, and with the possibility of another 10, is very unusual. And it's something that I do take great pride in. It's been awesome. It's been challeng- ing. It's been frustrating at times. But that's also why I'm so proud of it. I know how much we've invested and fought and scraped and battled to get where we are. And I think we're in a good place. I know there's some frustration with [falling short of] playoffs and national championships and things like that. But if you had talked to every local media person and every national media person that covers college football and said at the time we got the job, that the next 10 years at Penn State would look like this — these New Year's Six bowl games, these wins in New Year's Six bowl games, a Big Ten championship [in 2016], being on the cusp of the playoffs and a national championship — would you take that, right now, based on where we were when we got here? I think probably 90 percent or higher would say yeah, we would take that. I am proud. I'm also proud of the fact that my family and some of the staff have been able to raise their children in the same community, which is a challenge, whether you're in the military or coaching football. Stability is important. BWI: Is there any added significance to getting into the College Football Playoff before the format changes to a 12-team field next year? FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think so. Because people look at different eras. You look at the BCS era and then you look at the cur- rent college playoff model with four teams and how that is viewed. Were you a part of that model or not during your time? I think a lot of people look at it and say that 12 is going to be easier, and maybe it is. But you're also going to have a harder Big Ten at that time with the addition of USC and UCLA. So, in some ways, it may be about a wash. But at the end of the day, I would love to put our team, and specifically our team this year, in a position to be a part of that conversation and make a run at this thing, especially with it being probably the last year. BWI: Do you feel as though Penn State is positioning itself to be part of that con- versation annually? FRANKLIN: I'm going to answer that with kind of a split tongue. The first thing I would say is yes. Be- cause of [board of trustees chair] Matt Schuyler, [university president] Neeli Bendapudi and [athletics director] Pat Kraft, I feel as confident and as excited as I have in a long time. I do think we have alignment. The challenge that we still have is just like the battle when I first got here over getting everybody on board with facili- ties. That was a fight when it didn't really need to be. You can study college football, or even With 78 wins in nine seasons, Franklin is the fourth- winningest coach in Penn State history, trailing Joe Paterno (409), Rip Engle (104) and Bob Higgins (91). PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE "We can't lose the best players in Pennsylvania to other programs, especially programs that aren't on our level, because of NIL. We can't lose players on our current roster because of NIL." F R A N K L I N