Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/717693
NO ORDINARY JOE Moorhead watches Penn State's first preseason practice session with Franklin in early August. The Nittany Lions are looking to improve on consecutive 7-6 finishes the past two years. Photo by Steve Manuel WAITING GAME t's hard to preach patience at a place like Penn State, where many fans have cherished memories of national champi- onships, Rose Bowl trips and undefeated seasons and are eager to make more. But that's the challenge that James Franklin 1nds himself confronting as the 2016 season, his third as the Nittany Lions' head coach, gets under way. Franklin went 7-6 in each of his 1rst two seasons in University Park, and while the 1rst of those seasons ended with a 1zzy burst of euphoria thanks to an overtime victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl, the second season ended with four consecutive losses and didn't produce the im- provements on of- fense that many had been hoping to see. To those who judge such things by the cold, hard numbers, this was a highly discouraging turn of events. The team's 14-12 record in 2014 and '15 was its worst in any two-year span since it went 7-16 in 2003 and '04. Heading into the 2016 season, those numbers have put Franklin in a precarious situation. He's at the point in his tenure at which results are expected, but he still has a young and inex- perienced roster that will be hard-pressed to produce the kind of breakthrough that fans have been yearning for since at least 2009, which was the last time Penn State put together double- digit wins. "Right now, if you look at the depth chart, the way it's listed, we've got one or two returning senior starters on o2ense, and I think it's four on defense," Franklin told reporters in early Au- I Hopes are high, as always, on the eve of another college football season, but the 2016 Nittany Lions still have plenty of growing up left to do