Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1512721
J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 6 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M I t's a truism in the coaching business that you don't want to be the guy who follows a legend. Better to be the guy who follows the guy who followed the legend. Perhaps no head coaching hire in recent college football history has confirmed the validity of that view more than James Franklin's arrival at Penn State 10 years ago. When Franklin was officially introduced on Jan. 11, 2014, as the program's 16th head foot- ball coach, he was succeeding Bill O'Brien, who had left for the Houston Texans less than two weeks earlier. O'Brien had spent just two seasons on the Nittany Lions' sideline, a short stint dur- ing which he won 15 games, lost nine and endured countless com- plaints that, in ways big and small, his stewardship of the program ran counter to what Joe Paterno would have wanted. Paterno was college football's all-time winningest coach, with 409 career victories, five unde- feated seasons and two national championships. He was the only Penn State head coach that generations of fans had ever known. As such, he was the model for how the program's more tradition-minded supporters thought every subsequent Nittany Lion mentor should comport himself. Traditionalists grumbled when O'Brien showed up at press conferences wear- ing sweatshirts rather than sportscoats, and they complained even louder when he insisted on putting players' names on the backs of their jerseys, a first for Penn State. The mere fact that O'Brien wore a headset on the sideline was new and strange to a fan following accustomed to seeing Paterno unencumbered by such newfangled technology. By the time Franklin showed up, the fu- ture shock had worn off. Seeing someone other than Paterno prowling PSU's side- line wasn't such a novelty anymore, and the focus on ephemera like uniforms and press conference attire had faded. At his introductory presser, Franklin embraced Penn State's past, noting that he had "tremendous respect for Joe Pa- terno and what he did here and how he built this program." He also noted that his initial conver- sations with prominent football alumni such as Todd Blackledge, Matt Millen and LaVar Arrington had been positive. "They just want a great univer- sity," he said. "They want a great football program. They want to do it with honor, and they want to do it the right way. We are here to take this university and bring it back together and unite it so that we can all just be so proud of ev- erything that it stands for on and off the field." 'A Remarkable Turnaround' At his introduction in a packed Beaver Stadium media room, Franklin was flanked by then- athletics director Dave Joyner and then-president Rodney Erickson. Both men had been thrust into their positions by the upheaval that followed the Sandusky scan- dal. Among their objectives was to bring a sense of normalcy back to the university and the State Col- lege community. For PSU, fielding a nationally competitive football program was a part of that sense of normalcy. The Nit- tany Lions had consistently aimed high during Paterno's reign, and as Joyner noted, they were eager to do so again. Franklin was an obvious choice to re- kindle that sense of purpose. He was a Pennsylvania native who had attended East Stroudsburg University, and he en- joyed three surprisingly successful sea- sons at hard-luck Vanderbilt, going 24-15 and guiding the Commodores to bowl ap- pearances each year. "He took his former program to a re- markable turnaround in a short period of time, while competing in one of the A NEW ERA James Franklin's arrival 10 years ago changed the course of the Penn State football program M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M Franklin was introduced as Penn State's new head football coach on Jan. 11, 2014, less than two weeks after Bill O'Brien returned to the NFL following two seasons with the Nittany Lions. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS