James Franklin proud of Penn State for entire body of work

Coming into this season, there were high expectations placed on Penn State and head coach James Franklin. However, with a couple of key Big Ten losses on the back of a struggling offense, there was plenty of criticism for the Nittany Lions by the end of the season.

Ultimately, though, Franklin is proud of what this Penn State team accomplished and after the regular season ended, he asked everyone to have some perspective about the Nittany Lions’ success.

“Yeah, again, we won 10 games this season,” James Franklin said. “There’s very few programs in the country that are able to do that. We’ve done it in back-to-back seasons. I’m very proud of what we’ve done.”

Ultimately, a program like Penn State is competing to win the Big Ten and go to the College Football Playoff. That hasn’t happened but Franklin is confident in the team’s ability to take steps forward.

“Do I understand, do I embrace that this place has very high expectations? Nobody has higher expectations than the players and the coaches. So, I’m not sure about all that but I’m proud of this team and how we played tonight, and how consistently we played this year. Obviously, there’s some steps we need to take. I’m confident we will take those steps and be aggressive,” Franklin said.

“Like I mentioned in the preseason, my confidence comes from the alignment of our leadership Neeli Bendapudi and Pat Kraft, and then hopefully in the consistency of the football program as well.”

Penn State went 10-2 in the regular season and will take on Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.

James Franklin shares how Penn State will handle defensive coordinator spot in bowl game

Ahead of the Peach Bowl, James Franklin broke down how Penn State will handle the defensive coordinator position with Manny Diaz leaving for Duke.

“Obviously, a tremendous opportunity and we’re very, very happy for Manny Diaz and his family. Did a great job for us, has accepted the head coaching position at Duke. So, we will handle it internally very similar to how we’ve handled it on offense for the last few games of the season,” Franklin said.

“And, obviously, trying to also balance that while also interviewing and trying to decide what we’re going to do moving forward with our defensive coordinator position, whether it’s an internal candidate or an external candidate. We’re working through that right now, but we’ll handle it like we have on offense to last the last few games of the season, and I’ll get into more specifics as we get together again.”