James Franklin shares excitement for charity aspect of Peach Bowl

Ahead of the Peach Bowl, Penn State head coach James Franklin shared how excited he is for the charity component of the game.

Franklin explained that he thinks it’s cool that bowls have a charity component related to their communities and that he thinks the Peach Bowl is one of the best bowls in college football for its charity.

“I think it’s cool. I think all of these bowls, as you get to know, I think they have a significant impact on the communities that they’re in,” James Franklin said. “But I do think the Peach Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl has probably done more of that than anyone, than any bowl, and to me that is special.”

The Peach Bowl advertises itself as “college football’s most charitable bowl game.” The game’s website also states that more than $62 million has been raised for charity since 2002.

“The game of football and what we do here at Penn State, although I clearly understand it’s about the wins and the records and the opportunities and, I get it, trust me. But I would also say this is a place that says that the game of football transcends even more so than that. To be able to play in a bowl, that really within their core values, believes the same thing,” Franklin said.

“Okay, there’s an aspect of this, there’s a business that we’ve got to run as a business. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it in a charitable way, you can’t do it in a way where you’re making a significant profound impact on the community and the people within your community. I think that’s really cool.” 

James Franklin then went on to praise the leadership of the Peach Bowl.

“I think there’s great leadership within this bowl, and I think all those things really kind of factor into it. I would say as a society, those things are probably more important to us than they’ve ever been, to especially the young people in our society that organizations, companies are trying to make a greater impact than just serving the best chicken sandwich in the world,” Franklin said. “I think those things are important, and I think whether it’s Chick-fil-A or whether it’s the Peach Bowl, I think they’re doing that at a very, very high level, and I’d also make the argument that so is Penn State.”

Penn State will take on Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl on December 30th.

James Franklin addresses Penn State’s wide receiver situation

Amid questions about the team’s depth at wide receiver, James Franklin shared some insight into the team’s wide receiver situation.

“To be honest with you, there’s really not a whole lot of ambiguity within the program. Just because things haven’t been announced to you guys doesn’t mean there’s ambiguity. I think sometimes there’s a plan that the player has on when they want to make their announcements.  Sometimes, God forbid, there doesn’t need to be an announcement. Like, ‘I’m coming back,’ and why does that need to be announced? That should be the expectation,” Franklin said. 

So, there’s less ambiguity in between the program than, maybe, you guys feel, and to be honest with you, maybe that’s part of your rationale to ask over and over again. But sometimes that’s the only reason the players make announcements is because they don’t want to get asked the question anymore. It’s kind of a fine line between those two things. But I think we have a pretty good idea. We talk about, there really should be no surprises, that we hope over their time in the recruiting process, and really the time they’ve been on campus, that they’ve developed a relationship with their position coach as well as the head coach that they can come in and have an honest conversation, that we can be a part of the process with them because we’re going to tell them the truth.”