Blue White Illustrated

T H E M O N T H I N . . . With all due respect to quarterback Trace McSorley, the numbers don't lie. Barkley has accounted for 38 percent of his team's yards from scrimmage this sea- son, which is the highest rate in the Big Ten and the fourth-highest in the FBS. While that might mean a trip to New York for the Heisman Trophy is in order, it doesn't bode well for Penn State's chances of contending for a national champi- onship. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the last team to win a national championship with one player accounting for that large a portion of his team's total yards from scrimmage was in 1980 when Herschel Walker carried Georgia to the promised land as a freshman. ALEX SCARBOROUGH ESPN.COM Franklin could leave. But over the past 1,370 days since he was hired on Jan. 11, 2014, he's made the Valley Happy again. And he's happy as well, his fussing over improvements at Lasch over the summer, extended contract extension talks and the like notwithstanding. That doesn't mean that his agent... won't use the situation to strong-arm a few more bucks out of Penn State's brass. But when all is said is done, look for Franklin to stay. He is 45 years old. Young enough to still be crazy ambitious. But also smart enough to know that for the time being, at least, Penn State is the right place — with his paycheck the right size — to channel it. MIKE POORMAN STATECOLLEGE.COM We call him the grandpa of the room. He's such a smart, great athlete, great foot- ball player and great person. When we recruit a corner, we want him to resemble what Grant Haley has done for us. I can't say enough good things about him and the player he is and the person he is. TERRY SMITH, cornerbacks coach O P I N I O N S Q U O T E S tutions. Intercollegiate Athletics has en- gaged in peer benchmarking with its Big Ten Conference colleagues and several other schools nationally, all of which annually compete for multiple NCAA championships, similar to Penn State. Data from the institutions' Equity in Athletics Disclosures Act for =scal year 2015-16 showed that Penn State ranks near the middle in spending per stu- dent-athlete in comparison with Big Ten schools and eight national public institutions: Alabama, California, Florida, Florida State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas and Virginia. F O O T B A L L Franklin dismisses report as recruiting ploy James Franklin may have signed a con- tract extension in August, but that didn't prevent his name from coming up in con- nection with the Texas A&M job earlier this month. After the Aggies opened their season by blowing a 34-point lead in a 45-44 loss to UCLA, Kevin Sumlin's job was thought to be in jeopardy. Whether that's still the case after they won five of their next six games is unknown. But on Oct. 12, CBS- Sports.com reported that Penn State is preparing for Texas A&M to try to woo Franklin away from University Park if it fires Sumlin following the season. The report received enough attention to elicit a response from Penn State. In an Oct. 13 tweet, Franklin dismissed specu- lation about his future as a ploy aimed at undermining the Lions' recruiting. He noted that he's a Pennsylvania native, and that both his team and his upcoming re- cruiting class were ranked third in the country at the time. "Recruiting is a crazy business," Franklin tweeted, "people will do anything to create drama." In addition to Franklin's tweet, Penn State's athletic department issued a statement. "Nothing has changed from the commitment that we made to Coach Franklin and the commitment James made to Penn State just before this season started," the statement read. ■ PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www. at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

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