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Morning Call. "If someone asks how your day is going and you say, 'Ah, it's OK,' that's how your life is going to be. I can't stand people like that. 'Woe is me.' How's your day? 'Best day I've ever had in my life.' 'Living the dream.' That's the type of person we want to be around." It makes sense for a man in Franklin's position to espouse a philosophy in which perceptions have the power to shape real- ity. After all, program-building is about using those perceptions to create a self- fulfilling prophecy. Elite recruits believe in your program because you believe in it. They sign on and then they start to win games because, well, they're elite recruits. The wins prove that their faith was justi- fied. Success begets success. That looks to be where the Lions are headed. But one of the big challenges that Franklin's predecessors faced was to strike a balance between building en- thusiasm and managing expectations. Coaches always need to articulate an ambitious vision for their program, one that gets fans and recruits excited. But they also need to keep short-term ex- pectations sufficiently realistic so that the backlash is containable if the best- case scenario doesn't come to pass. Franklin has got the first part down cold. He has confidence and charisma to spare, and he has used it to raise every- one's hopes. He has said he wants to "dominate the state" in recruiting, a claim that has been adopted as a rallying cry, dissected in the media and plastered on T-shirts. He wants the Lions to sell out Beaver Stadium on a regular basis, too, which would require them to reverse a downward trend that began in 2008. "You've heard me say before that we're going to sell out every single game next year," he said at the start of Penn State's spring practice. "I believe that. I'm going to keep pounding the table on that be- cause we need to do it. We need to do it from a recruiting perspective. We need to do it from a financial perspective. And I truly believe that once we get everybody pulling the rope in the same direction we can build something really special here." He's got all the tools he needs to ac- complish those goals, but there are some anderbilt coach Derek Mason wants a piece of Penn State. Can you blame him? He's got a bunch of fans who aren't happy with the way his predecessor left Nashville for University Park in January, a nonconfer- ence schedule that could use a little more pizzazz – make that a lot more pizzazz; it consists of Temple, Massa- chusetts, Old Dominion and Charleston Southern – and a roster that has already proven itself capable of springing upsets on such traditional powers as Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. "If James Franklin wants to play," Ma- son said in March, "we will play any time and place, anywhere." Mason's bravado is totally understand- able. If you were in his shoes, you'd want a piece of Penn State, too. And even if you didn't, you'd say that you did, knowing that your bring-it-on attitude would play well in the local media. Franklin responded by saying that he was open to the idea, and since the Commodores were willing to play "any- place," why not Beaver Stadium? That's a place, right? But even with both sides publicly expressing interest, it feels like a longshot. Penn State has one open date in the next three years, and while there's been some idle Internet speculation about the teams meeting in the Chick- fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta or in the competing preseason game that Nashville tourism officials are looking to start up in 2016, the Nittany Lions don't have as strong an incentive to make this happen as the Commodores do. And as for the Commodores' incentive, well, that could diminish in the coming years. As was widely predicted when Franklin took the job, the Lions are on the up- swing. They have been recruiting better than ever in the past three months, hav- ing secured verbal commitments from nine Rivals.com four-star prospects as of this writing – two of whom joined the Class of 2014 after Franklin's arrival, and seven of whom have verbally committed to join the Class of 2015. To put that in perspective, those nine four-star prospects are only one fewer than Penn State signed in its classes of 2011, '12 and '13, and are one more than Franklin landed in his three seasons at Vander- bilt. And there is every reason to believe that more are on the way. Franklin's success is a testament to his relentless positivity. He's talked openly about restoring Penn State to national championship contention, and when he poses for photos, it's usually with his in- dex finger pointed upward in a gesture aimed at reinforcing perceptions of the Nittany Lions as a team on the rise. He recently explained the coaching staff's philosophy during a visit to a football clinic in the Lehigh Valley. "We believe life is how you perceive it to be," he told attendees, as reported by the Allentown V THE LONG VIEW Future is bright, but short-term challenges loom Patrick Mansell J U D G M E N T C A L L ONE TEAM Franklin, left, has put an em- phasis on teamwork, not just among players but among PSU alum- ni and supporters. "Once we get every- body pulling the rope in the same direction, we can build some- thing really special here," he said. Tim Owen

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