Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1537537
A U G U S T 2 0 2 5 2 9 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 / / / / / / / people about how hard it is to earn a dol- lar. I think there are a lot of challenges. BWI: You had a plan for implement- ing NIL resources using a merit-based hierarchy. Do you like how that approach has gone? FRANKLIN: For the most part, I think our plan and our model have been going well. I also think, for the most part, the schools that we are typically recruiting against have a similar philosophy. We're trying to sell the holistic expe- rience at Penn State — the education, the community, the conference, the aca- demics. But then also, you can come to Penn State, be developed at Penn State, play at Penn State and not have to go somewhere else. A lot of our transfers were captains at their last places. They felt like they had to leave. And for us this year, being able to show recruits all the guys who came back, I think that's very telling that you don't have to go some- where else. But everybody loves our model until it affects them. They're like, "Oh yeah, that makes total sense what you're saying." Until it impacts them. We say, "We're go- ing to be fair to people. We're going to invest in the retention of our roster, and we're going to take care of our best players who have produced for Penn State. That's going to change how we're treating you as a freshman coming in." Everybody agrees with that. Well, what about when there's a sophomore about to be the starter or the backup, and a high school kid is coming in who hasn't done anything? They're like, "Yeah, I agree with [prioritizing the sophomore]." OK, well, this is what we're offering you and this is what we're doing. "Oh, I don't like that." Well, you said you liked it before, right? Everybody agrees with it in theory until it impacts them. BWI: How do you avoid deviating from the plan? FRANKLIN: Let's be honest — in life, marriage, football, everything, there are compromises that are made. But I think at the end of the day, it's like anything else. It's core values, or it's your mantra, your mission statement. We have to make sure in every conversation we have and every deal we're doing that we get back to who we say we are. You get competitive and you want to get the deal done, you want to get the player, but [you have to ask], does this align with that? I think it's been helpful to remind ourselves to get back to who we say we are. BWI: You weren't a kid from a family of means. You played at East Stroudsburg University in the Pennsylvania State Ath- letic Conference. What do you make of how the business of college football has changed? FRANKLIN: I'm actually good with it in general, because I don't think what we were doing before was right. Let me lead by saying that. What I struggle with is when people see on social media certain numbers, or agents are telling them certain num- bers, and now there's an expectation of a certain number. And you make an offer, which is a lot more money than the aver- age American is making, and some people are offended by it. Those are the [situa- tions] I struggle with. We don't have many of them. But sometimes in recruiting, we get a situa- tion like that. That bothers me, because I sit here and say to myself, if somebody would have told you a year ago that you get a full scholarship to Penn State and this [additional benefit], you'd be sprint- ing here. "How fast can I sign it?" But I get it. We've got a model that seems to be working. I think gratitude and appre- ciation still matter. And that's for the coaches and myself, being appreciative of being at Penn State and being grateful for Penn State and the experience that I've had and our players have had over the past 12 years. I just hope that we can come up with some guardrails, that we get to a sys- tem where at least there are some rules and there's some governance and there are ways to get our arms around this. As much hope as there is, there's probably just as much doubt or concern. I think for the best interest of the game — and really, for the best interest of the stu- dent-athlete — there need to be some rules to all of this. ■ Franklin Continues Ascent On Career Victories List When Penn State outlasted Illinois, 21-7, in last year's Big Ten opener Sept. 28 at Bea- ver Stadium, James Franklin moved up one spot into third place on the Nittany Lions' all- time coaching victories list. The win was Franklin's 92nd since taking over in 2014, one more than Bob Higgins amassed while steering the program out of its Depression Era doldrums when it stopped offering athletic scholarships for a period of time. Franklin is set to pass another PSU football icon this fall. Now with 101 career wins, he is just three behind Rip Engle, the former Brown coach who came to Penn State in 1950 and brought a young assistant named Joe Paterno along with him. Here's a look at the 10 winningest coaches in school history. — Matt Herb Coach Years PSU Record Pct. Career Record Pct. Joe Paterno 1966-2011 409-136-3 .749 Same .749 Rip Engle 1950-65 104-48-4 .679 132-68-8 .654 James Franklin 2014-present 101-42-0 .706 125-57-0 .687 Bob Higgins 1930-48 91-57-11 .607 123-83-16 .590 Hugo Bezdek 1918-29 65-30-11 .665 127-58-16 .672 Tom Fennell 1904-08 33-17-1 .657 42-18-2 .694 Bill Hollenback 1909, 1911-14 28-9-4 .732 46-19-8 .685 Dick Harlow 1915-17 20-8-0 .714 149-69-17 .670 George Hoskins 1892-95 17-4-4 .760 59-48-9 .547 Pop Golden 1900-02 16-12-1 .569 16-12-1 .569