Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1512721
6 2 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M toughest conferences in the country," Joyner noted. "I believe he will continue to build our Penn State football program while operating at the highest level of integrity." Franklin's hire also garnered praise outside of the Penn State community. One of the more prophetic endorse- ments came from Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. "The Nittany Lions under Franklin should expect to be a top-25 program and win the Big Ten by 2020. Probably sooner," Dodd wrote. "Why? It's simple college football math. If Franklin can win nine in back-to-back seasons at Vander- bilt, think about the possibilities at Penn State." Dodd noted that the team had per- formed reliably under Franklin's prede- cessor and appeared ready for someone new to take the wheel. "O'Brien handed the keys to the next guy with the family car in good shape," he wrote. "It's not a Corvette, but Penn State isn't playing at the Division II level either, something Barry Switzer predicted in the wake of the sanctions." A Matter Of Perspective Franklin has now had those keys for nearly 10 full years. After consecutive 7-6 finishes to start out, he hit the accelerator hard in 2016, guiding the Nittany Lions to the Big Ten championship and the first of four 11-win seasons in the next seven years. Whether a decade spent at the same school constitutes an eternity or an eye blink is, of course, a matter of perspective. At Penn State, where Paterno established an unreachable standard by coaching for 46 years, it's the latter. In comparison to a lot of other schools, however, Franklin's 10-year tenure is lengthy. Heading into the 2023 postseason, Franklin boasts the eighth-longest tenure among current Power Five head coaches. The only men ahead of him are Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, whose first season with the Hawkeyes was 1999, Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy (2005), Utah's Kyle Whit- tingham (2005), Alabama's Nick Saban (2007), Clemson's Dabo Swinney (2009), NC State's Dave Doeren (2013) and Ken- tucky's Mark Stoops (2013). Of those coaches, the only ones with a higher win- ning percentage at their current schools than Franklin's .696 mark at Penn State are Saban (.877) and Swinney (.796). Even in PSU's neighborhood, head coaching tenures have been growing ever shorter. Except for Iowa and Penn State, every school in the Big Ten has had at least two head coaches since 2014. Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, Rutgers, Pur- due and Indiana have had three apiece. Nebraska, Illinois and Maryland have had four. When Franklin was hired, one of the questions many had was whether he would stick around long enough for the program to develop the stability it craved. He had made 11 previous stops in his ca- reer and acknowledged during his intro- duction that his resume was "probably not a great example of who I am." The worries proved unfounded. Franklin is now the fifth-longest-ten- ured football coach in school history, trailing Paterno, Bob Higgins (19 sea- sons), Rip Engle (16) and Hugo Bezdek (12). He hasn't accomplished everything he set out to do when he was hired, hav- ing failed to reach the College Football Playoff or beat Ohio State and Michigan with any regularity. But he's been at it long enough now that future Penn State coaches will be benchmarked against what he has accomplished during his tenure. When he took the position, Frank- lin called it his "dream job," one that he wanted to hold for many years. "This is where I want to be," he said. "Wearing these colors, representing this state … is what I want to do for a very, very long time. Our plan is to go out and win a bunch of games so we can stay here." ■ Franklin was brought to Penn State in 2014 by athletics director Dave Joyner (left) and university president Rodney Erickson. Filling their offices on a short-term basis following the Sandusky scandal, both Joyner and Erickson left PSU later that year. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL "Wearing these colors, representing this state … is what I want to do for a very, very long time. Our plan is to go out and win a bunch of games so we can stay here." F R A N K L I N , A F T E R T A K I N G O V E R P S U ' S F O O T B A L L P R O G R A M I N 2 0 1 4