James Franklin: New Penn State athletic director will be a 'critical' hire
Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour stepped into her role shortly before James Franklin coached his first game with the Nittany Lions in August 2014.
Just under eight years later, Penn State is set to undergo a change in leadership — both athletically and academically.
Barbour announced her intent to retire this summer last week. Her successor will be appointed by Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, who is set to replace Dr. Eric Barron as Penn State’s president.
“Obviously this athletic director hire is going to be critical for the university as a whole, for the athletic department, and then specifically to the football program,” Franklin said.
“Very, very important hires and very important that we build strong relationships and that I understand so I can do a great job of building the football program in the vision that they expect it to be run.”
“We have made, and will need to continue to make, significant investment in our football program because we believe we have a very bright future under James,” Barbour said then, in a prepared statement.
“With this contract, we are signaling our sustained commitment to being one of the premier programs in the history of college football. Our goals and aspirations relating to football have never wavered and our investments today and in the future of our program will allow us to compete at the highest level.”
College football’s landscape is shifting, with much of the change driven by Name, Image and Likeness opportunities for collegiate athletes.
Franklin has also pushed hard recently for improvements to Penn State’s football facilities.
Both of those factors further underscore the importance of PSU’s athletic director hire.
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“I think it’s really important,” Franklin said. “You guys have heard me talk about alignment for a long time. It’s kind of a unique deal where I came in as the football coach with an interim president and an interim AD and then was really fortunate because in a short period of time after that, President Barron and Sandy were hired, and I thought we worked extremely, extremely well together.”
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Asked about Penn State’s NIL exploits during a press conference Monday, Barbour said nailing down what those opportunities will look like moving forward represents the athletic department’s biggest challenge.
“Six months from now, is it going to be something different? So I think that’s a huge challenge, and it’s balancing the place it plays in recruiting, both prospective student-athletes out of high school and either transfers or retaining your own student-athletes,” Barbour said.
“I think that’s kind of a head scratcher but one that if we’re all going to compete, we’ve got to pay attention to.”
On the facilities front, Barbour said she wished Penn State accomplished more on its 20-year ‘Master Plan’ than it has.
Relating to Beaver Stadium, Barbour said renovation prospects “are on the timeline that we thought.”
“We never said that was going to be in the first five [years],” Barbour said. “That needed some runway and some time to accomplish or to undertake the studies and do the kinds of things that you need to be ready for that.
“That’s right on the timeline I think we probably all anticipated.”
