James Franklin admits his demeanor after losses has evolved

Losing has made a crying child out every college football coach in the country. They simply don’t take too well to it. But every coach has to learn how to deal with it. Because the losses always come at some point or another. For Penn State, a big one came last weekend against Michigan when the Nittany Lions laid an egg in Ann Arbor with a 41-17 loss.

So does a loss like that infuriate James Franklin as much as it used to? Of course! But the longtime collegiate head coach knows that lashing out and letting his emotions get the best of him afterward isn’t going to accomplish anything. Instead, he’s had to find new ways to channel that negative emotion after losses in order to avoid letting the stench of defeat linger in the locker room.

At a press conference this week, Franklin opened up on how he’s had to curb his temper after losses in order to get back on track and not let one loss become two.

“I think it has evolved. And I think that’s critical for our entire organization. For, you know, for all the assistance for myself, for the players, I think it’s really important. I think, at the end of the day, whether it’s practice or whether it’s in our facility, the players are going to feed off of our energy. And there’s a fine line between making sure everybody understands, you know, that whatever the outcome was — not good enough, but also not to the point where it lingers, you know. That is critical and in this conference and on our side of the conference. There’s no time for lingering feelings or emotions that fluctuate.”

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

Not time for feelings to get in the way of the next game. Especially after a loss, it’s important to move on and focus on the next obstacle in the season. According to James Franklin, that process gets easier with experience. And most of these older coaches have plenty of experience overcoming tough losses.

So if the Nittany Lions lose today to Minnesota, you can expect a calm, cool and collected James Franklin after the game. He’s past his days of getting cranky for a week over a loss.