James Franklin opens up on impact Don Brown has had on him as a coach

When Penn State and UMass meet on Saturday it’ll be a reunion of sorts for coach James Franklin and coach Don Brown.

The two previously worked together at Maryland from 2009-10, when Franklin’s offenses went against Brown’s defense. It proved to be a formative period for Franklin, his last stop before getting a head coaching gig.

“I think for all of us, whether it’s coaching or any other profession, you learn from a lot of the good experiences you’ve had and you also learn from things that you would do differently,” Franklin said. “Don did a really good job of getting the defense to understand his system, to buy into his system and play extremely hard.”

Franklin might differ philosophically from Don Brown in one major way: He doesn’t like his team unprepared for what it’s going to face in practice. The clearer the expectations, the cleaner the learning.

Brown’s so versatile in his approach defensively that it didn’t always lend to what Franklin would like to do in teaching his offense.

“The other thing that I learned on the other end of the spectrum, and I mean this in terms of as a head coach, is Don has always run an unorthodox system,” Franklin said. “And as a head coach I’ve got a very structured way of the way we install and the way we teach. And a lot of that comes from Don, to be honest with you.

“When you’re trying to install a defense or when you’re trying to install an offense, I don’t allow the offense, when we’re doing install during spring ball or training camp, that Manny (Diaz)‘s got to teach his defense and then also he could get empty, he could get unbalanced, he could get motions and shifts. We don’t do that. So it’s like on this day you’re going to get this from the offense and on this day you’re going to get this from the defense. And that was always a challenge with Don, because Don, that is his base. It’s like OK, we’re trying to run it against a base defense, well he doesn’t really have a traditional base.”

That will make for some challenges on Saturday when the two programs meet, naturally.

Don Brown typically has a well-coached outfit that knows how to execute what he’s trying to run. He’s been successful like that in a number of different places.

“So in terms of how he did such a marvelous job of getting guys to buy into his system and play extremely hard and have a lot of confidence within the system, he does a phenomenal job,” Franklin said. “As good a job as I’ve been around with that. But also in terms of how we structure practice and how we build, making sure that the offense and defense is doing it in a way that allows both sides to kind of build a foundation and go from there.

“Got a ton of respect for him. This Saturday there will be some challenging looks that we’ll get. But to be honest with you that’s a big part of how we do things here is based on some of the challenges that he presented as a defensive coordinator when I was a young offensive coordinator.”

Penn State and UMass are set to meet at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday with a broadcast on the Big Ten Network.