James Franklin shares hopes for Penn State Senior Day

On Saturday, Penn State is hosting Rutgers for Senior Day. In that final home game of the season, head coach James Franklin is looking forward to honoring the players who helped the Nittany Lions get where they are today.

Ahead of Senior Day, Franklin shared that he hopes the seniors get to play in a great environment and are given the support that they deserve.

“Obviously, I hope a great one,” James Franklin said. “I hope it’s a great environment. I hope the fans show their appreciation for all the hard work that these guys have put in representing the university the right way both on and off the field. So, yeah, I would love for them to get a feel for the sense of appreciation that we have for them. Play well, get a win, all those things included.”

For any true seniors at Penn State, celebrating Senior Day after playing the last four seasons in Happy Valley, it’s been a very successful run. Penn State is 30-15 going into Senior Day over the last four seasons and won the Rose Bowl while finishing 7th in the country last season.

Of course, because of redshirts and the pandemic, there are plenty of players who will either be staying longer or have been with the Nittany Lions since before the 2020 season. For those who were on the team in 2019, they also won the Cotton Bowl.

James Franklin opens up on how quarterbacks are handling coaching staff change

After the loss to Michigan, James Franklin decided to move on from offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Mike Yurcich. That’s a decision Franklin knows is going to have an impact on the team’s young quarterbacks.

“I think it goes back to what I tried to say to you guys before, it’s not that we’re trying to hold information from you guys. But I want to be able to have healthy dialogue and conversations rather than you just read something online and you don’t understand and it’s shocking and you can’t talk it through. That’s to me when it becomes problematic. Or, as a leader, you’re not communicative. And, you don’t talk it through and explain, and talk to the parents, and talk to the high school coach, and talk to the trainers, and talk to the guys,” Franklin said.

“But, it’s been good. They’ve handled it well. Obviously, it’s a tough situation, but they’ve they’ve handled it well. And I think also, they got a ton of respect for Danny, and Danny has been with those guys, a lot of them, through the recruiting process and afterward. So, I think that helped. If it would have been somebody completely new coming into that room that hadn’t been with him, I think that could have been more challenging.”