Blue White Illustrated

C OA C H S P E A K| EXCERPTS FROM JAMES FRANKLIN'S WEEKLY PRESSER Could you discuss your emotions this week – opening game, first game at Penn State, your dream job as you put it? I know you've had three years of head coaching experience before this, but how special is it to go out there for the first time with the Penn State team? You know, I had that experience at the [introductory] press conference and then walking into the stadium with my family for the first time. I haven't really experienced that since. Me and my wife talk about it all the time because she's been excited for the last couple weeks. I really don't get excited too early before games. It's more about doing the job and all the things that we have to get done to be ready to play and play the way we want to play. I do get some of that nervous anxiety right before the game in the locker room, get the butter- flies and things like that. I usually sleep extremely well the night before the game, and I don't usually get a whole lot of those feelings until in the locker room right before the game before heading out. So it's hard for me to answer that at this point just because that's not emo- tionally kind of how I am. People talk about your energy [but] I haven't heard you talk about what are you like in the locker room pregame and at hal6ime? Is that an extension of your personality or what you think of yourself? Are you really bouncing off the walls? Or are you more cerebral in those types of set- tings? I'm not a big pregame speech guy. I feel like if you have to get them fired up 15 minutes before they run on the field, you've got problems. So I do my pregame speech Sunday through Friday, telling them all the things we're going to need to do to be successful, areas of concentration, areas of emphasis, things like that. Before the game for me, it's basically telling them how much I care about them and how confident I am in their preparation and how excited I am to go see them play. That's really it. Coach Chaos – Coach [Sean] Spencer – some- times he'll visit with the team, and he takes a lot of pride in that, but that's not necessarily something we'll do every week. Now at halCime sometimes, if I feel like there is a message that needs to be presented to the team, then I'll deliver that message. Sometimes it's with emo- tion, and sometimes it's calm and cal- culated. Then aCer the game, when we have success, I'm going to go in there and celebrate. One of the problems that happens with coaches is that the losses become a lot more painful than the wins are joyous and fun, and I don't want to get like that. I want to really, really enjoy the wins and celebrate them with the guys. When we face some adversity, I'm going to address it with them and talk about why it's an opportunity for growth and to learn from it and move on. But I'm pretty matter-of-fact, to be honest with you, and I speak from the heart with them. I do a lot of my talks Friday night at the hotel before the game. How do you feel about the team's legs going into the opener? Do you feel you're fresh? How much have you scaled back practice at this point? Also, was there much discus- sion into trying to have an open date a6er this game? Well, I wasn't a part of any of those discussions. Those things with this game and the contract, when the game was going to be played, that was all done way before I got here, so I wouldn't be the person to answer that question. The legs thing, that's one of the big challenges. Dwight Galt has been doing this for 30 years. I have tremendous re- spect for him and his decision-making. We also listen to the coaches and how they see their team. We've probably done a little bit less running than we've done in the past to make sure that we are fresh for the game. But you also don't want to run out of gas in the fourth quarter. That is the fine line. But, again, we have some unique chal- lenges that I don't know if a lot of peo- ple have been prepared for in the past, with 75 scholarships and things like that. So those things factor in. So al- though our experience in the last three years is helpful, this is a unique situa- tion. We feel good about it. Tim Bream, and our athletic training department as well as Dwight Galt and our coaches take all of that information, and ulti- PREGAME TALK Franklin said he doesn't get too amped up when he's talking to players before games. "If you have to get them fired up 15 minutes before they run on the field, you've got problems," he said. A U G U S T 2 8 , 2 0 1 3 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 Patrick Mansell SEE FRANKLIN PAGE 14

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