Blue White Illustrated

C OA C H S P E A K|EXCERPTS FROM JAMES FRANKLIN'S WEEKLY PRESSER What kind of an influence would you say Ralph Friedgen has been on your coaching career? He's had a big influence. I think Ralph is a very, very good football coach, very well-respected. Obviously, my first probably big break in the profession in major college foot- ball was at the University of Maryland for five years [during which Friedgen was head coach] and we had a lot of success. So, obviously of all the people that I've worked with who have had an impact on me, Denny Douds, my former college coach, has had probably the biggest im- pact. Rutgers offensively has been explo- sive through two games this year. In what ways do you see Ralph's influ- ence seeping into what they do? Well, I think when you've got a guy who has been doing it for 42 years, and just like Dwight Galt, our strength coach, says all the time: It's 30 years of not only doing things right, but doing things wrong and learning from those mistakes and growing and evolving. Ralph's had tremendous experience, college and in the NFL and has done a nice job. You break them down and look at tendencies and you look at all the things you see from an experienced coach, they show up. I think that's one of the big reasons why they are playing that way. I don't know if you had a chance to see the celebrations Monday night downtown. What was your reaction to seeing all of that, if you saw it? Well, first of all, we were game plan- ning. We were in what we call our sub- marine. So we were watching film and coming up with game plans and [study- ing] tendencies and down and distance situations and things like that. But I was aware of what was going on and I think that's great. I think it's great to have excitement and enthusiasm and I think it's great that it shows how much people care. I think it's part of the edu- cation process, as well, because you can go out and you can enjoy yourself with others. We just have to do it the right way. We've just got to make sure that nobody is injured and we've got to make sure that nothing is damaged and that people are being respectful. But there is enthusiasm and there is excitement and there is tremendous pride in this school and part of the heal- ing that's taking place and moving for- ward – I think this is part of it. When you interviewed, was it said or suggested to you that there was a possibility that these sanctions would be li8ed earlier than ex- pected? No. The way it was discussed is that the last time the report came out (Sep- tember, 2013), it was really favorable and that Penn State is working ex- tremely hard to continue working to make some changes and some adjust- ments and do the things necessary and that we take a lot of pride in that. That was kind of addressed, and if the next report comes out positive again, then we'll see what the future holds. But that was really it. Very similar to what I've told you guys before with re- cruits, that carrot was never dangled in front of me. It was never dangled in front of the recruits. It was very black and white. "These are what the sanctions say right now and this is what we are living with, and we are moving forward." And it was very, very black and white. If something changed in the future, wonderful. But it was more speculation from peo- ple outside of Penn State than ever in- side of Penn State. I heard it from the media and people asking questions and fans and things like that, but internally, it was more, "Look, these are the things, the steps that we are trying to put in place and we take a lot of pride in the steps we're doing and how we are doing it." So hopefully we can be a model across this country for how to run an athletic department and how to run a football program and a university as a whole and take pride in that and just see where it goes from there. When you were at Maryland, there was a lot of offensive brainpower. Can you talk about what that coaches' room was like? You're exactly right. You had Ralph Friedgen as the head coach. You had Charlie Taaffe, who is the offensive co- ordinator at Central Florida. I got a chance to see him before the game, which is great. Bill O'Brien who is now S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 13 Tim Owen SEE FRANKLIN PAGE 14 LAYING IT OUT THERE Franklin said he was not told during the interview process that the NCAA would reduce the sanctions. "That carrot was never dangled in front of me," he said.

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