Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/260491
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be mindful of the student trainers, the
student managers, the fans who come out
and
support the program. He's really in
touch with all aspects of the program."
The one aspect of Penn State's program
that many people have focused on since
Franklin's hiring is recruiting. That's un-
derstandable. The Nittany Lions need a
dogged recruiter if they're to emerge from
the NCAA sanctions with the kind of team
that Penn State is accustomed to having,
the kind that can compete for champi-
onships. In Franklin, they appear to have
their man.
It was during his years as an assistant
coach at Maryland that Franklin began to
develop a reputation as the kind of recruiter
who could build relationships that led to
verbal commitments. Four times during
his eight seasons with the Terrapins, he
was named a top-25 recruiter by
Rivals.com. In December 2010, he le=
College Park for Vanderbilt – his ;rst head
coaching job – and immediately began
doing for the Commodores what he had
done for the Terps.
Franklin's late arrival meant that he had
less than two months to shore up Van-
derbilt's 2011 recruiting class. The team
ultimately signed 21 players, including 15
three-star athletes as rated by Rivals, and
six two-star athletes.
Over the next two years, the Com-
modores' recruiting just kept getting better
and better. Of the 22 signees in the Class
of 2012, three received four stars and all
the rest received three. Last year's class
featured ;ve four-star athletes, and all
but one of the remaining 21 players received
three stars.
All told, of the 69 players in Vanderbilt's
recruiting classes of 2011, '12 and '13,
seven were two-star athletes as rated by
Rivals, 54 were three-star athletes, and
eight
were four-star athletes. Those results
were comparable to Penn State's during
that same three-year span. The Nittany
Lions signed 51 players, 14 of whom re-
ceived two stars, 27 of whom received
three stars, nine of whom received four
stars and one of whom – quarterback
Christian Hackenberg – received ;ve stars.
Of course, there are more substantial
ways of evaluating prospects than simply
tallying up their star ratings. Franklin likes
to look at their faces, hands and feet. If
they're bigger or broader than average, it
indicates growth potential. He also likes
to see prospects play basketball. That
shows athleticism. When he visits their
schools, he talks not just to the coaches
but to guidance counselors, teachers, ran-
dom students he ;nds in the hallway and
custodians. "We want to ;nd out as much
information as we possibly can," he said.
"You go do the home visit, you see how
they interact with their mom or dad or
one of their parents at home or their little
brother or sister – it's all those things.
And what we're trying to do is take all
that information and try to ;gure out who
this kid is long -term. I think we've got a
good process for doing that."
At Vanderbilt, much of Franklin's seem-
ingly boundless energy went into reshaping
recruits' perceptions of a program that,
prior to his arrival, had enjoyed only ;ve
winning seasons since 1960. The Com-
modores didn't have an indoor practice
facility, and the facilities they did have
were not up to the standards of their
Southeastern Conference opponents. Van-
derbilt Stadium may have been the ;rst
stadium in the South to be used exclusively
for college football when it was ;nished
in 1922, but it had fallen desperately behind
the
times in the decades that followed,
and with a seating capacity of slightly
over 40,000, it remains the smallest sta-
dium in the SEC.
Defensive line coach Sean Spencer, who
worked for Franklin at Vanderbilt before
joining him at Penn State, admitted that
the sta< was at a big disadvantage as it
strived to attract the kind of players who
could compete in the nation's toughest
conference. The sta< did overcome those
obstacles, posting the ;rst back-to-back
nine-win seasons in Vanderbilt history,
but there remains a lingering sense of in-
credulity as those coaches look around at
the resources they now have at their dis-
posal in University Park. Said Spencer,
"It's going to be very exciting to see what
happens when the playing ;eld gets a
little more level."
Spend any time with Franklin's coaching
sta< and it's not hard to see why recruits
have responded to them. They're mostly
in their 30s and 40s – old enough to serve
as authority ;gures but young enough to
know what Facebook and Twitter are.
They've worked together long enough to
have developed an easy rapport. They're
brash. They're funny. They crack jokes at
each other's expense. They tell self-dep-
recating stories about how a bunch of
guys with roots in Pennsylvania Division
II football managed to get themselves to
the SEC and now the Big Ten. They use
the word "fun" a lot, promising schemes
that players will want to play and fans
will want to watch. And they clearly take
a lot of cues from their boss, who does
not shrink from the spotlight.
"I think that we're a di