Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1537537
2 6 A U G U S T 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / 2 0 2 5 F O O T B A L L P R E V I E W / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / P enn State head coach James Franklin has a plan — for the 2025 season, of course, and also for the long-term future now that the House vs. NCAA rul- ing has fundamentally changed the nature of college football. But, more specific to a humid early summer afternoon in June, Franklin's plan involved a bit of multitasking. Look- ing to improve his productivity, Frank- lin decided on a change of venue for his annual one-on-one interview with Blue White Illustrated. Rather than doing it while stationary, he opted to combine it with his daily power walk around Penn State's campus. With students away for the summer, the busy foot traffic had thinned out, giving Franklin an uninter- rupted opportunity to answer questions about the season to come and the state of college football in general. That is, if the interviewer could keep up. With the Nittany Lions preparing for their most highly anticipated season in decades, here's a look at what's been preoccupying the head coach as he ap- proaches his 12th season at the helm. BWI: Spring practice is over, and the season's still a couple of months away. What's been on your mind the most these past few weeks? FRANKLIN: June is a beast now, be- cause you have everything in June. You have your traditional team workouts, you have your variation of OTAs [organized team activities] where we're able to work the guys out now. We call them skill de- velopment. Some people call them OTAs. This year, I had a couple of things on my schedule during the spring, more than normal. I didn't get all my player meet- ings done that I usually get done in the spring, so I'm still doing them. I've got 128 of them to do. It usually takes about three weeks. I had about 10 or 12 of those today. And then official visits on the weekend, and we typically have a seven-on-seven or a camp on those weekends as well. So, you're doing everything. You're running in a thousand different direc- tions, and it's how you prepare for the fu- I N T E R V I E W J A M E S F R A N K L I N STEP BY STEP STEP BY STEP With a new era dawning in college football, James Franklin keeps the Nittany Lions moving forward NAT E BAU E R | N AT E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M