Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/861263
F O O T B A L L Franklin on contract talks: No concerns, but focus now 'completely on the season' It's a fickle business, college football. Last September, on the heels of a 49-10 loss to Michigan that dropped Penn State's record to 2-2, athletic director Sandy Barbour was compelled to give James Franklin a public vote of confi- dence, telling an audience in Altoona that "he's not on the hot seat, and he won't be on the hot seat in December." It's been less than a year since Bar- bour's show of faith, but the line of questioning has already shifted 180 de- grees. What fans want to know now is, when will Penn State sign the coach to a contract extension? Franklin is getting set to begin year four of the six-year contract he signed in 2014, and while there's been plenty of speculation about when an agreement might be reached, neither side was ex- pressing a lot of urgency to get some- thing done in the weeks leading up to the season. When asked about his contract at Penn State's football media day Aug. 5, Franklin declined to offer a timetable, saying, "I'm in football mode now. I'm focused on the season. We've been talking about this for a while, and I feel good about it. I don't have any con- cerns, but my focus is on our team and the 2017 season completely. … Once the season starts, it changes a little bit for me. So I kind of put the blinders on and jump in the submarine. To me, every- thing that we do and I do is about getting the team ready to be successful. "I feel good about where we're at. I don't have any con- cerns, but my focus is com- pletely on the season." NEWS & NOTES MEDIA TIMEOUT Franklin takes a break from supervis- ing preseason prac- tice to meet with reporters in early Au- gust. Photo by Ryan Snyder |