Blue White Illustrated

Following the season, the sixth of the Big Ten era in which Penn State won 10 or more games, Franklin shared the league's top coaching honor with his rival in the title game, Paul Chryst. Franklin won the Dave McLain Coach of the Year award, which is determined by a vote of media panelists, while Chryst was honored by his fellow conference coaches. In accepting his award, Franklin re- turned to his theme of inclusiveness, emphasizing the contributions of play- ers and staff. "I'm honored and hum- bled," he said, "but this is a team award. This is a staff award. We've got the best staff in the country. I love our locker room. We appreciate it and we're hum- bled and honored, but it's all about our team. This is a staff award for us and it represents what our players do for us day in and day out." Franklin is the third Penn State head coach of the Big Ten era, and he's the third to win the award named for McLain, a former Wisconsin coach and a posthumous in- ductee into the school's athletic hall of fame. Joe Paterno was saluted in 1994, 2005 and 2008, while Bill O'Brien won the honor in 2012. Of those coaches, O'Brien was probably the unlikeliest to see his name on a Coach of the Year plaque, simply because of the head- winds the program was facing prior to his first season on the sideline. But those winds were still howling when Franklin took over, and he faced a major challenge of his own in trying to restock a sanction-depleted roster quickly enough to satisfy an impatient and in- creasingly vocal crowd of skeptics. He went 7-6 in each of his first two sea- sons, and the second ended with four consecutive losses, ratcheting up the pressure to deliver a breakthrough in 2016. The Sporting News summed up Penn State's dilemma nicely in its pre- season football magazine: "Franklin is charismatic and has helped steer the program through some turbulent times," TSN wrote. "Now it's time to win some big games." In ranking the Nit- tany Lions behind Ohio State, Michi- gan and Michigan State, the editors' stance seemed to be that Franklin might not get those wins. But after starting the season 2-2, he received a vote of confi- dence from athletic director Sandy Bar- bour. At a speaking engagement in Altoona a few days after Penn State opened its conference season with a 49- 10 loss to Michigan, Barbour said Franklin was "not on the hot seat, and he's not going to be on the hot seat in December." "James is going to be our football coach," she continued. "I believe in where this football program is going under James Franklin, and I think he's going to be our football coach, period." Barbour's confidence turned out to be justified, because shortly after she made those remarks, the Lions started win- ning some big games. They defeated two previously unbeaten Big Ten opponents in Minnesota and Maryland, and then they took down second-ranked Ohio State. Five more regular-season wins followed, and the joyride continued in the conference title game with the come-from-behind victory over the sixth-ranked Badgers. Few had foreseen a 10-win regular season, and Penn State's success brought it national ac- claim while also giving Franklin's re- cruiting efforts a big push. Before coming to Penn State in 2014, Franklin revived Vanderbilt's long-suf- fering program, guiding the Com- modores to the postseason all three years he was in Nashville. In six seasons as a coach, he has yet to miss out on the postseason, one of only 12 current head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision who can make that claim. Franklin brought his staff with him TEAMWORK Moor- head helped Penn State improve its scoring average by nearly two touch- downs per game. Photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics

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