James Franklin shares 'challenging' battle with Penn State's history

James Franklin came to Penn State and had a “challenging” battle with the football program’s history.

Before Franklin it was Joe Paterno, a legendary coaching figure in college football history. The end of Paterno’s legacy was marred by the Jerry Sandusky case, which led to Bill O’Brien taking over the program.

After the transitional period, it was Franklin’s time to bring Penn State back to the forefront of college football.

“But you know, I think a lot of places that have a deep tradition, you know of history and the success, there are a lot of places that are like that, right,” Franklin said on Next Up with Adam Breneman. “So I think that’s one of the things that I think we did a pretty good job of early on is, how do you pay respect to the past and the history, but still move the program forward and make it more of a current college football program and model that has a chance to thrive and be successful?”

Franklin mentioned the battle it was to keep the program moving forward because the rest of the sport caught up and was starting to pas Penn State.

“That was a battle,” Franklin said. “The facilities were a battle. I remember when I first was complaining or talking or trying to kind of get people on board that we need to update the facilities. People were like why? The interesting thing is, it’s funny, it depends on who’s telling the story, right? 

“When Penn State built this facility, it was the nicest building in all football, college or the NFL. And people came from all over the country to study it and see it. But over time, that kind of had been lost. You know, there was a period where Penn State kind of had the best of everything. And we needed to get back to that. So it was challenging and it was surprising.”

Franklin took over Penn State in 2014 and went 7-6 in each of his first two seasons. But it was the 2016 season where he saw his breakthrough as head coach.

The Nittany Lions went 11-3 overall, won the Big Ten title and made it to the Rose Bowl. They’ve been very successful since, but haven’t been back to the conference title game.

However, Franklin and Penn State won the Rose Bowl last season en route to an 11-2 record and are a popular pick to finally break the Ohio State and Michigan mold in the Big Ten.

Franklin is 78-36 at Penn State and 102-51 overall as a head coach.