Blue White Illustrated

F A S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R L Y L O O K sense of enthusiasm and excitement. They show up. The Lions have now played in four bowl games during Franklin's tenure in University Park, and they've been com- petitive in all of them, winning two and losing two others by a combined total of 10 points. It might seem like faint praise to laud a team simply for playing hard. But when you look at some of the results from the recently concluded postseason, it's really not. At Oregon, players lobbied school ad- ministrators to give the Ducks' head coaching job to offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal after Willie Taggart bolted for Florida State. Days later, the administrators did just that. The team's response? A three-quarter-long sleep- walk in the Las Vegas Bowl, leading to a 38-28 loss to Boise State. At Washington State, which had been in contention for the Pac-12 champi- onship until the final day of the regular season, coach Mike Leach's name turned up in connection with the Ten- nessee job. He didn't leave, but nobody seemed particularly interested in the matter at hand, that being a matchup with Michigan State in the Holiday Bowl. Final score: Spartans 42, Cougars 17. And those weren't even among the more lopsided results of the postseason. This year's offerings were riddled with duds, as 10 of the 39 bowl games played in December and January were decided by three touchdowns or more. Those scores did not go unnoticed as Penn State prepped for the Fiesta Bowl. Said Franklin, "One of the things I've seen across the country now with some of these bowl games is that you have teams that had certain expectations, and then they get to the bowl game and Calling him a "dynamic football coach who will be a great fit in our program," James Franklin announced Jan. 12 that he had hired David Corley to oversee Penn State's running backs. Corley most recently served as wide receivers coach at Army, and he previ- ously coached run- ning backs while at William & Mary and later Connecti- cut. Franklin has said that he likes to keep tabs on young coaches who could potentially become job candidates if a vacancy were to arise on his staff. Corley was one of those coaches. "I have gotten to know David over the last several years and followed his ca- reer closely," Franklin said. "He has continuously impressed me with his drive and passion for the game and re- cruiting. He has an infectious person- ality and competitiveness that will impact our running back room. People I respect in this profession think the world of David and his family, and we feel they will be a tremendous addition to our Penn State community." Corley replaces Charles Huff, who left in December to become assistant head coach at Mississippi State under Joe Moorhead. He said in a prepared statement that he was thrilled to join the Penn State staff. "I have admired Coach Franklin's work for a long time," he said. "I'm looking forward to working with this awesome staff and these outstanding student-ath- letes!" Corley helped the Black Knights to a second consecutive bowl win and the Commander in Chief's Trophy in 2017. Army won back-to-back bowl games for only the second time in school history, defeating San Diego State, 42-35, in the Armed Forces Bowl in December. In doing so, the Black Knights also tied the school record with 10 wins. As always, Army's success was pri- marily based on its rushing attack. The Black Knights attempted only 65 passes all season, completing 20 for 361 yards. At Penn State, Corley won't have the services of Saquon Barkley, but he does inherit a group of talented players headlined by Barkley's backup, Miles Sanders. Also returning are Mark Allen and Johnathan Thomas, and redshirt freshman Journey Brown is getting set to make his debut. Another freshman, Ricky Slade, will be arriving this sum- mer. Prior to his stint at Army, Corley was at Connecticut for three seasons where he served in a variety of roles, including running backs coach, special teams coordinator, wide receivers coach and director of player engage- ment. In his final season with the Huskies, Arkeel Newsome rushed for 715 rushing yards and five touchdowns and added 273 receiving yards. Corley also served as the offensive coordina- tor for the Huskies for the final month of the season. In his season as the wideouts coach in 2015, he helped Noel Thomas dou- ble his production from the previous year with 719 yards and three touch- downs on 54 receptions. In his role as special teams coordinator, Corley led the Huskies' punt-return defense to a top-20 national ranking. In 2014, he helped Newsome be- come the first Connecticut true freshman since 2002 to accumulate Corley joins Lions' staff as running backs coach CORLEY

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