Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/247378
Patrick Mansell Chuck E. Cheese? Probably not, but Franklin knows how to deliver a good laugh line, and his record in Penn State press conferences is now 1-0. The next challenge will be win something that really matters. Franklin comes to Penn State at a time when expectations are once again on the upswing. The university signaled its intent to compete on an elite level by making the boldest hire it could make, and Franklin's arrival, coupled with the NCAA's relaxation last September of its scholarship penalties against the program and the possibility that the bowl ban could be lifted a year or two early, has given the Nittany Lions reason to hope that they will be able to compete for titles before too long. They may have their share of holes to fill this coming season, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines and at linebacker, but the days in which seven or eight wins constitute a successful season are coming to an end. Frankin seems fine with high expectations. More than fine, actually. At his introduction, he was the one inciting those expectations. "We're going to unite the [state's high school] coaches, we're going to unite the community, and build this program where everybody wants it to be, he said. " O'Brien was not that brash, and Joe Paterno was even more circumspect than O'Brien, always finding new ways to make you wonder whether his team belonged on the same field with the likes of Temple. So, in a sense, the culture shock continues. But in another sense, it doesn't. Franklin spoke of Paterno quite a bit at his introduction, creating a feeling of continuity that was absent when Penn State hired O'Brien amid talk that it needed to make a clean break from its past. Maybe Franklin's comments were a sign that the white-hot anger over the Sandusky scandal has cooled, or that the pushback against the Freeh report has made an impact, or that as part of his bid to bring the community together, he wants to win over the JoePa loyalists who frustrated O'Brien to no end. Or maybe it was just because, as a Pennsylvania native and a former