The last time James Franklin’s football team played in The Linc – the only time, actually – didn’t turn out so well.
Franklin was wide receivers coach for the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 27, 2005, when they visited Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
The Packers, with Brett Favre at quarterback, lost 19-14 as David Akers made four field goals, Favre missed his first 10 passes and the Eagles didn’t miss an injured Donovan McNabb.
The Pack finished 4-12 and after the season head coach Mike Sherman and his staff, including Franklin, were finished as well.
Franklin literally landed in Manhattan, Kan., just a day after getting fired and hasn’t looked back. After two years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kansas State (2006-07), three seasons as assistant head coach at Maryland (2008-10), three seasons as head coach at Vanderbilt (2011-13) and his first season at Penn State (2014), he has returned.
His journey back to The Linc — from that November day in 2005 to Saturday’s game against Temple – will have taken Franklin a total of 3,569 days and 120 games (64 wins, 56 losses). Hmm, #pieceofcake.
Franklin grew up in the suburbs of Bucks County, northeast of Philadelphia, in Langhorne. It’s best known as home to Sesame Place, although the amusement park is actually located in Middletown Township. In addition to Franklin, Langhorne counts skateboarder Chris Cole, indie group Days Away and seven-time PBA Tour winner Bill O’Neill as its own. (I’d say Franklin is a clear No. 1 native son.)
Langhorne is 30 miles or so from the stadium where his team will meet Temple on Saturday. He side-stepped the notion this week that the game will be a Homecoming of sorts. At least for him.
“I do think for the kids from the Philadelphia footprint, South Jersey, Delaware,” Franklin said, “it’s pretty cool for those guys. A lot of those kids grew up Eagles fans, which I think is a positive.”
Still, his roots are in the Philly area, where he grew up with his mother and sister, although he did branch out every summer to visit his dad in Pittsburgh. At 43, Franklin is old enough to remember old Veterans Stadium, with its threadbare turf that acted and reacted like concrete.
“The Vet. Yeech,” he said on Wednesday, shaking his head. “That turf that used to be on your grand mom’s porch they used they have. The jail they had in the basement. Things have changed.”
An important part of Franklin is still in the Philly suburbs. His sister Debra and her family live in the area, and his nephew Jeremy even attended Penn State’s football camp this past summer. Franklin’s head football coach at Neshaminy, John Chaump (brother of peripatetic high school and college coach, John), is still in the area, selling real estate. As a quarterback at Neshaminy, Franklin covered some ground. He was a sometime-starter as a junior in 1988, helping lead Neshamiy to an 11-0 regular-season record and guiding the Redskins into the state playoffs. As a senior in 1989, he directed Neshaminy to a 6-1 start, before they dropped three in a row.
Franklin’s success at Neshaminy led him to East Stroudsburg, where he starred at quarterback. But he kept those Philly ties. A college buddy from East Stroudsburg, Dan DiZio, grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and with another ESU grad, Len Lehman, founded the Philly Pretzel Factory. At one point, DiZio tried to get Franklin to quit football and try his hand at pretzels. Even though the franchise hit it big, Franklin did OK making his dough elsewhere.
As a quarterback at ESU, Franklin never quite made into Philadelphia. He played twice at West Chester and once at Cheyney. Same as an assistant, when in his one season at Kutztown (1995), the Golden Bears played both Cheyney and West Chester on the road. Franklin was back at East Stroudsburg as an assistant in 1996, when ESU played at West Chester.
Then, in 1997 as an assistant at James Madison, Franklin came back to Philly for a game at Villanova Stadium –25 miles and worlds away from the brand of football being played at The Linc on Saturday. James Madison lost, 49-17, that day.
It’s likely Penn State’s head coach will fare better in Philadelphia on Saturday. His name, after all, is Franklin.
