James Franklin has his masters degree in educational leadership, which he began at East Stroudsburg and completed after a final summer of nine credits at Washington State in 1999.
He’s certainly earned his doctorate in head football coaching over the past 31 months at Penn State.
It’s been that challenging.
And life-changing. And, maybe, a bit humbling.
At age 44, Franklin is no novice to the profession. He has made 12 stops in a peripatetic career that has covered 18 job titles, 12 coaching positions, 11 towns and cities, 10 leagues and conferences, eight states and two countries. It’s A Football Life that is documentary worthy.
But nothing has matched what he has faced at Penn State.
Not the massive rebuilding job at Vanderbilt. Not a professional season in Denmark as a player-coach. Not even a 4-12 campaign in the NFL, after which he was summarily fired as wide receivers coach – along with the rest of Mike Sherman’s staff.
Penn State has been unique. But you knew that. Franklin thought he did, too, when he arrived with a big grin in a snowy and cold not-so-Happy Valley on Jan. 11, 2014.
YEARS 1-2-3
But these days, as he enters Year 3 of the Franklin Era — it begins on Thursday, when Penn State officially begins summer drills – he’ll be the first to tell you he didn’t know what he didn’t know.
“My first year the excitement was about being at Penn State, because I know how great and special this place is,” Franklin said when we talked over the weekend. “And I probably overlooked some of the challenges because I was so excited about being here.
“Year Two I was probably more realistic, but still hopeful.
“And now we’re at a point where I understand Penn State. I understand our strengths and I understand our challenges. I have some institutional knowledge, I have some community knowledge. I understand the Big Ten better, I understand the players better. And there’s the fact that we’re back to a normal scenario.”
True, Penn State football is different. Again. But it is near-normal different. Full scholarships, nil sanctions.
“It’s a much different situation,” said Franklin, fresh off a full-staff retreat in Harrisburg, following similar stints spent in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia during his first two PSU off-seasons. “The excitement and the enthusiasm are backed up by real, true evidence and things I’ve experienced.
“The first year it went from not having the depth to feeling that we can overcome some of those things to last year, when we had some depth – not ideal depth, but getting back to it. And then this year, we legitimately have depth. For instance, at punter we have competition now.”
There’s been a whole lot of water under the dam over the past half-decade. (And, off the field and in the courts and the court of public opinion, it’s still a bit of a damn mess.) Penn State has had three university presidents, three provosts, five Board of Trustees presidents, four athletic directors and five head football coaches since November 2011.
But, somewhat amazingly, Nittany Lion football is whole again. And it is about football – people are talking (a lot) about the games on the field in September, which includes the Sept. 3 season-opener with Kent State, followed by Pitt, Temple and Michigan. Those 22 days will be instructive (a lot).
That’s different. Consider that during the last several years of the Paterno Era, the preseason focused a big bit on the health and future and coaching vitality of the octogenarian and oft-injured Paterno. And that was followed by that scandal and sanction stuff (a lot).
A SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA
Now, for the first time in a long time, The Play’s The Thing. As in the play of the Nittany Lions’ up-tempo, spread offense.
As of Sunday, Franklin had been on the job for 933 days, nearly three score of signed and verbal recruits, 14 wins, a dozen losses and countless refurbishings, some visible and many others not.
Franklin has matured in many ways in that time. He’s less active on social media. He makes fewer broader pronouncements that can be misinterpreted (negative recruiting aside). He’s worked hard to build the constituencies and relationships he talked about on Day One. He’s maintained his focus on his players’ myriad off-the-field contributions. And, more often, he’s let his actions speak louder than his words.
It hasn’t always been easy. Penn State, as Rodney Dangerfield certainly would’ve agreed, is a tough crowd. Not that Franklin was complaining the other day. Just explaining. In fact, it was also part of a conversation he recently had with his wife, Fumi, who like her husband holds a masters in education.
Fewer flips. Or flops. Less James and the Giant Pitch.
Still, there’s that backflip-out-of-the-bed mentality. Just fewer mentions of it.
“I never want to lose my enthusiasm and my positive attitude,” Franklin said. “That’s who I am. But, I do think that going through some of the challenges I’ve been through professionally the last 22 years and then at Penn State, it changes you. I think you’re a little more guarded. I think you’re a little more cautious in what you say and do. I fight being that way because that’s not who I am. I do struggle with that a little. I’m a guy who is quick to smile, quick to laugh, quick to talk about all the positives. But the last couple years’ experience has challenged that.
“My wife and I talked about that. It’s finding that balance where you stay true to who you are, and don’t allow the circumstances and the environment to change that. I’m finally in a place to do that because I truly understand what the challenges are. It was something you thought you knew, then ‘Whack,’ you get hit upside the head.
“The longer you’re in this game, the more you realize that you’re learning. When we were 22, we thought we had all the answers. That’s a very valuable lesson – even when you’re in this game at 55 or 60 or older, you’re still learning about this game.”
AGE, EXPERIENCE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
Five years ago, as the 84-year-old Paterno was preparing to begin what he already knew was going to be his 46th and final season as a head college football coach, the 39-year-old Franklin was beginning his very first season as a head coach, at Vanderbilt.
It’s been a strange and sometimes sad turn of events in the 1,800-plus days since then.
Franklin, for one, thinks of what has transpired to the point where his office was once the office of a man who had been the head coach at Penn State for six seasons before Franklin was even born.
“The interesting thing that people don’t talk about very often is, ‘Why is the new coach there?’” Franklin said. “Everybody looks at the end result. But the end result also should be based on why are they there in the first place.”
And these days, Franklin understands that better than ever. Part of the question — and answer — is, Does everyone else?
