Blue White Illustrated

lyst Tom Luginbill and SB Nation ana- lytics director Bill Connelly. Franklin had no trouble asserting himself as not just a voice in the coaching profession but also as a great believer in the power of statis- tical analysis. The following are some of his insights and comments. ON THE PLAYOFF Judging by Franklin's comments to kick o4 the panel, it's probably fair to say he's erring on the side of caution when it comes to the push for an immediate ex- pansion of the four-team 3eld. Praising the format and quality of the games, Franklin o4ered this: "My con- cern as an educator and as a college football coach is, in our society, as soon as the playo4 is over, everybody's talking about, Well we need to go to eight, we need to go to 12. Where does it end? In basketball, we're still talking about team 70, 71, 72. They're complaining that they didn't get in. I think that probably more so now than ever, we better make sure that we're making the right decision for the student athlete." As for the challenge of becoming one of those four teams, Franklin said it's hard to draw clear lessons from the play- o4 because the data set is limited, con- sisting of only four teams: Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama and Florida State. But that hasn't prevented him from pushing his sta4 to learn more about what made those teams successful last season and, maybe more important, how the pro- grams were able to become title con- tenders through time. "I already had somebody in our o5ce do a study on the four playo4 teams, looking at their roster, looking at how they recruited, looking at what o4ense they ran, what defense they ran, special teams, approaches, sta4 stability, what- ever it may be, and try to come up what are the key ingredients that allowed them to get where they got," he said. "I think, as we all know, the sample size at this point is really too small to determine what are going to be the factors year in and year out. … So I think it's going to take a number of years, and hopefully we keep a similar system in place for a long time so you can really build your program and model your pro- gram based on the things that are going to matter." ON RECRUITING Franklin talked at length when he was hired in January 2014 about "dominating the state," of Penn- sylvania. At MIT, he elaborated on his philosophy, explaining how re- cruiting is not just meant to stock the roster with players who can win football games but also players who will 3t into the academic culture at Penn State. He said it's easier for the coaching sta4 to get to know prospects who come from P R E V I E W TALKING THE TALK Franklin ad- dresses the crowd at Schwab Audito- rium during the TedxPSU event on March 1. Photo by Bill Zimmerman

• Cover