James Franklin shares what he respects about Ryan Day

This weekend, Penn State and Ohio State will square off in what is widely being celebrated as the game of the week. Within that game, there will be an excellent coaching battle between James Franklin and Ryan Day.

Ahead of that game, Franklin praised Day for being an excellent coach and one that he has plenty of respect for.

“Obviously, number one, the success that they’ve had,” James Franklin said. “It’s interesting because, he took over a program in a very different position than I did, but still very challenging for very different reasons, if that makes sense.”

James Franklin took over Penn State ahead of the 2014 season. That was immediately following the Bill O’Brien era and the program was still dealing with fallout from the end of the Joe Paterno era. The Nittany Lions hadn’t won 10 games since 2009.

For his part, Ryan Day replaced Urban Meyer at Ohio State in 2019. He worked as an interim head coach for the Buckeyes the previous season as well. That 2018 season saw Ohio State win the Big Ten.

“I always got a ton of respect for him at Big Ten meetings, just kind of how he goes about his business. He’s passionate about the Big Ten conference and what we have to do to position the conference in the best chance to be successful competing nationally. They’ve done a nice job offensively, which is what his background is.”

One thing that James Franklin also noted was that the two have worked with many of the same people in the past. Frank Leonard, for instance, worked at Boston College at the same time as Ryan Day. He’s also been on the Penn State staff.

“We have a lot of people in common. Jim and Frank Leonard worked together at Boston College. We just know a lot of people in common and I respect his body of work.”

James Franklin is in his 10th season with Penn State. During his time there, he has an 84-36 record and has finished in the AP Top 25 on five occasions. On the other hand, Ryan Day is 51-6 since taking over and has finished sixth or better in the AP Top 25 poll in each of his first four full seasons.

Ryan Day praised Drew Allar

One reason why this season’s game between Penn State and Ohio State is so highly anticipated is Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar. In just his first season as the starter, he’s raised Penn State’s potential as a program and Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has plenty of respect for him.

“A lot of respect for him and his program,” Day said. “Certainly, being from the state of Ohio, he’s a very good player. He’s an Ohio kid that had a great career. We already had Quinn Ewers committed to us and it was a reclassification. At that point, he was already committed to Penn State.”