Penn State Football: James Franklin Doesn’t Enjoy Recruiting ‘I Enjoy Winning’

BREINIGSVILLE, Pa.- Considering he’s one of the best recruiters in the nation, the prevailing belief is that James Franklin enjoys recruiting.

But Franklin isn’t scouring the state for talent simply because he enjoys the thrill. 

So don’t tell him that he does.

“Let me make sure we’re clear on that. I enjoy winning. Being successful and winning.”

That’s how Franklin interrupted a question that had yet to be fully asked but started by mistakenly assuming Franklin’s success recruiting was directly related to his personal love for the process. On the final day of the two week Coaches Caravan, Franklin has heard a lot about recruiting. He’s been asked a lot about satellite campuses and Christian Hackenberg’s future.

Maybe hearing that he just loves recruiting so much was the final straw, or maybe he had been waiting for the right chance to say something.

Whatever the case, James Franklin had something to say on a cloudy morning in the Allentown area.

“Somebody told me a long time ago, in the NFL you have the ability to typically get one first round draft choice a year. In college you can have as many first round draft choices as we are willing to go get. So to me, I’ve been around the game long enough, coaching counts, coaching matters don’t get me wrong, but if your players are better than the players across from them, more times than not you’re going to have a chance to be successful.”

That’s basically football in a nutshell, especially at the college level. You have better players — you win games. So in that light it makes sense why James Franklin “likes” recruiting. It’s how you get those better players. Nothing more, nothing less. it’s something simple that can make a huge difference.

“It’s amazing that when you have a good kid playing for you and you throw the hitch to this kid and he takes it for seven yards,” Franklin added.”And then the next year you recruit a game breaker and you throw that same hitch and he breaks three tackles and runs 80 yards. Now all of a sudden you’re an offensive genius. Nothing has changed.

“You can watch all of the tape you want, there are some creative people out there, but if you really study it pretty much everyone is running the same stuff … It’s about developing the techniques and the fundamentals and maximizing your players abilities and making sure you have a bunch of really good players.”

To be sure, Franklin wouldn’t be successful on the recruiting trail without an ability to enjoy the process. He doesn’t deny that fact, but he left little doubt as to why he enjoys the challenges. Overcoming them is how you win. And James Franklin likes winning.

It was an interesting moment on Thursday, for a man who controls so much of the message coming out of Penn State football. He still has to “course correct” the narrative about what makes him click. Maybe his super-charismatic personality makes it difficult to distinguish what is genuine and what is message. Whatever the case, everyone is still getting to know how Franklin operates and he took the opportunity on Thursday to clear a few things up.

“Good players count. So yeah, I enjoy recruiting because I enjoy getting to know people and getting to build relationships and getting to go into a young man’s home or high school and get to know him and where he’s from. I enjoy all of that, but it’s because I want to see Penn State be successful and I want see our players be successful.

“I know you had more to your question and I kind of cut you off, but I want to be successful.”

Duly noted.