SPRING FEVER Penn
State drew 72,000 fans for
the 2014 Blue-White
Game. It was the second-
largest spring-game crowd
in the nation last year, trail-
ing only Alabama.
Photo
by Steve Manuel
B
ad news, Penn State fans: James
Franklin is not coming to your
kid's birthday party. He may
come to your wedding – more
on that later – but he is walking
back one of the more memorable pledges
he made at his introductory news con-
ference 15 months ago, a promise that if
anyone asked, he would "blow up bal-
loons in the backyard." Seems a few peo-
ple
did ask. More than a few, actually.
"The biggest mistake I made when I
got here is that I said I would not turn
down a speaking engagement or birth-
day party, blow up balloons. I think peo-
ple understood what I was saying," he
explained recently, "but 10 percent of
the people thought I was being literal
[and were] inviting me to birthday par-
ties, weddings, things like that."
Franklin went on to say that he needed
to focus "on graduating our players and
B L U E - W H I T E G A M E
Crowd
sourcing
Fans' engagement boosts
eorts to build a title-worthy
PSU football program
