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after his third season, $2 million after his fourth season and $1 million following subsequent seasons. But there's also reason to believe that Franklin won't be so restless in his new job. While he spent a season in the pros, he described himself as "a college guy. " If he can get Penn State back among the sport's elite in the coming years, there probably won't be a lot of college jobs that hold more appeal than the one he now has. "If you look at my resume, it's probably not a great example of who I am, he " said. "I lived in nine different states and countries in my first nine years to get to this position. I would still be at Vanderbilt right now if it wasn't just such an unbelievable opportunity. "We're coming here with the mindset that we're going to build this program. We're going to build it the right way, and we're going to build it for the long haul. We plan on being here for a very, very long time. This is my dream job. This is where I want to be. Wearing these colors, representing this state, representing these high school coaches and the people of the fine state of Pennsylvania is what I want to do for a very, very long time. " A second concern has less to do with whether Franklin will stick around than whether an incident at Vanderbilt last summer should have disqualified him from consideration. Last June, several Commodores players allegedly raped a 21-year-old student in a dormitory. Four players have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial; a fifth player pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of covering up the alleged incident. A defense attorney is seeking text messages from members of the Vanderbilt coaching staff. Franklin has strongly denied that he had a hand in covering up the incident, and a member of the prosecution team said at a hearing last September that "there's no evidence whatsoever where Coach Franklin was involved in any way in the cover-up or has done anything inappropriate." The players were immediately kicked off the team. Nevertheless, the case led to a backlash among some in the media and on Penn State's campus. An online petition created by communications professor Michelle Rodino-Colocino urged the university not to hire him. When the hiring became official, the petition remained online as a protest. As of mid-January, it had garnered more than 650 signatures. Mindful of the need to protect the university's reputation in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, Joyner said Penn State conducted "maybe the most thorough vetting process" in school history. He said Penn State used a variety of independent third-party sources and was confident that Franklin had handled the situation appropriately. Particularly noteworthy, Joyner said, was the strong recommendation that Franklin received from former Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow. Yow called him "a terrific football coach and a man of excellent character who will also be an effective ambassador for the entire university. " Franklin wasted no time taking up those ambassadorial duties. At his introduction, he talked about bringing together all Pennsylvanians in support of the state's biggest university, from high school football prospects to coaches to fans. That may not be the kind of talk they want to hear at, say, Pantherlair.com, but Franklin is uniquely qualified to build a coalition. He has roots on both sides of the state. His father grew up in Pittsburgh's Hill District, and as a kid, Franklin would spend holidays there. The family later moved to Bucks County after his father took a job at a GM plant in Trenton, N.J. When, as an aspiring college player, Franklin attempted to find a (literal) middle ground in University Park, things didn't work out. But it turns out his Penn State dreams weren't dashed, only delayed. After agreeing to become the 16th head football coach in its history, he called the university "a special place." "There are only a handful of Penn States in this country," Franklin said. "An opportunity to coach here is such a tremendous honor that I take so much I pride in. " Players applaud PSU's decision to hire Franklin The way Jordan Lucas figured it, there were no bad outcomes in Penn State's recent coaching search. One way or another, the university was going to hire a qualified guy, so rather than obsess, the junior cornerback waited patiently to see how things played out. "I wasn't worried," Lucas said. "I told my teammates, 'We'll be fine either way.' I would see names. I would be on Twitter, just scrolling down my timeline, and I would see things. But I didn't search. It didn't really faze me." Lucas learned via a text from a former high school coach that James Franklin had been hired to fill the position. And now that the decision has been made, the time for patient waiting is over. Winter workouts got under way Jan. 16, with a handful of holdovers from Craig Fitzgerald's staff providing supervision, and the Lions are eager to get to know their new coach. Franklin met with the team on Jan. 12 at the Lasch Building and later had individual meetings with players. Lucas said his takeaway from those encounters was that the former Vanderbilt coach "knows what it is to have fun on the field." "I'd describe him as a 'player's coach.' He gave us the vibe that he's very energetic, he's down to business, Lucas said. " "He's gonna yell, but what coach doesn't? He's real passionate about the game, and we could tell that just from one team meeting with him. We're all excited to be behind him." The one current Penn State player Franklin mentioned by name at his introductory news conference was quar-

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