Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1524108
2 8 A U G U S T 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 / / / / / / / 2 0 2 4 F O O T B A L L P R E V I E W / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / I t may seem like only yesterday that James Franklin stepped onto the rainy tarmac at the University Park Airport ahead of his introduction as Penn State's 16th head football coach, but his body of work with the Nittany Lions now spans an entire decade. Franklin has gone 88-39 at PSU, a win total that ranks fourth in school history. He is responsible for 9.5 percent of the 930 victories that PSU has amassed since fielding its first football team in 1881. Subtract his first two transitional sea- sons, when the Lions were still dealing with the harshest impacts of the NCAA sanctions, and Franklin's winning per- centage at Penn State is .732. That's not so far removed from Joe Paterno's .749 career winning percentage. If Franklin wants to become the Nittany Lions' ca- reer victories leader, all he'll need to do is keep winning at his current rate and stick around for another 34 years. For now, though, let's set aside specu- lation about what Penn State's coaching staff will look like in 2058 and turn our at- tention to the past. There have been some big wins in Franklin's first decade as head coach. Here are the best of the best: 1 Penn State 24, Ohio State 21 Oct. 22, 2016 | State College Grant Haley scooped up a bouncing ball after Marcus Allen blocked Ohio JAMES FRANKLIN'S JAMES FRANKLIN'S TOP 10 WINS TOP 10 WINS These are the signature moments from the coach's first decade in charge of PSU's football program Fans stormed the field and surrounded Franklin following the Nittany Lions' 24-21 upset of second- ranked Ohio State in 2016. PHOTO BY PATRICK MANSELL M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M