College football coaches and cars.
They go together this time of year. On the road recruiting. To high schools and for home visits. To the airport, from the airport.
And, often together, assistant coaches with their bosses.
Much of a coach’s life is spent in meetings — team, staff, side of the ball and by position. And when they’re not there, assistant coaches are looking at video, and meeting individually with players and GA’s and quality control assistants.
And then there’s practice. Always practice.
As a result, the interaction between head coach and his nine full-time, on the-field assistant coaches can be more limited than you would think.
Except in recruiting season. When they’re riding in the car.
That’s especially true at Penn State, when visits to players’ homes often include one, two, even three assistants, plus James Franklin. You see the photos on social media, of Franklin and numerous assistants, standing in front of a Christmas tree with a recruit’s family (and neighbors and friends), everyone with his or her index finger pointed upward or simply wearing big grins (like the one at right, with recruit Jesse Luketa).
That’s not just Franklin connecting with his future players and parents. It’s Franklin bonding with his direct reports. Like parents of multiple children who cherish the alone driving time with just one of the kids, head coaches and their assistants also relish the one-on-one time alone on the road.
This past week, Franklin and Brent Pry — Penn State’s associate head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach — were together non-stop for over 30 hours. Conveniently enough.
Their conversations extended far beyond Penn State and Penn State recruits. They included the vacant head coaching job at Louisiana-Lafayette, a position that was of great interest to Pry. And vice versa. Pry had coached at ULL for five years, his wife Amy is from there and he has additional family who live there now.
CAR TALK
Pry and Franklin have known each since the early ’90s, when James was a long-haired undergraduate quarterback at East Stroudsburg, and Brent was a fresh-faced assistant coach. A few years prior to that his dad, Jim Pry, was the ESU offensive coordinator.
They’re tight. So, as they hit the recruiting trail this past week, Franklin wore a three-pryed hat: boss, mentor and friend.
As the two mansplained — in separate interviews — on Friday, things went like this:
Franklin: ‘We were in a car together for about a day-and-a-half. We talk all the time about everything: family, career, Penn State and about other opportunities.’
Pry: ‘We were planes, trains, and automobiles. You can’t pack enough in to a day for Coach Franklin. You’re going to do all you can to maximize the day and that’s how it’s been these past few weeks…’
Franklin: ‘Brent’s my guy. Brent’s obviously been a valued part of our staff since Day One and for the last seven years. He’s one of my best friends and I love his family and his wife.’
Pry: ‘I think you know Coach well enough that he’s going to hit things head-on.’
Franklin: ‘The hard thing for me is that I kind of feel split. I want what’s best for Brent Pry and his family. But I also want what’s best for Penn State and Penn State football. So I’m kind of conflicted on that, personally and professionally.’
Pry: ‘James has been fantastic. He’s one of those guys who can walk that line and be supportive, but at the same time make you feel so appreciated and make it hard to leave. He wants what’s best for us and our families. I believe that wholeheartedly. His guidance, he’s going to be there for us. That’s been the situation with me.’
Franklin: ‘Like I told Brent, he’s in a great situation. He’s got a great job at a great place that he loves and whenever you have really good people that are talented at what they do, people are going to pursue them to in some way to try to steal some of the success that we’ve had the last couple years.’
Pry: ‘It happens every year. You’d like there to be discretions, but it’s hard…It’s difficult waters to tread. But like anything we do, we want to hit things head-on and be upfront and be mindful of others and do the best we can that way.’
Ultimately, at the end of the conversation and at week’s end, Pry said he is staying put. At least for now.
THE DRIVER’S SEAT
Cars are the coin of the realm, at last when it comes to the business of coaching boss and assistant relationships.
At Penn State’s Fiesta Bowl media day on Friday, Franklin twice referenced car conversations with offensive line coach Matt Limegrover. First, about extended bowl practice schedules and what Northwestern did when Limegrover was there. And then about Limegrover’s conversation with a recruit’s parent, which took place when CJF was in the CAR.
Franklin’s recent car talks with Pry and Limegrover reminded me of a conversation I had back in 2010 with Fran Ganter, the former Penn State assistant coach. At that time, he was associate athletic director of football administration. Prior to that, he had spent over 35 years playing for then working directly for Joe Paterno.
At Penn State, Ganter played freshman and varsity football, was a grad assistant, head freshman coach, head junior varsity coach, coached running backs and kickers, was recruiting coordinator, and served as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. All under Paterno.
Even when he had the assistant head coach title, after turning down the head coach’s job at Michigan State, things stayed mostly the same way they had always been with Ganter and Paterno. Joe was the boss.
“I don’t think my relationship with him changed no matter what title I had,” Ganter said for my story back then. “My relationship with Joe changed drastically from player to coach, but as a coach it never changed. He was always my boss. I was always wary of him and doing the right things, pleasing him and looking for him to say, ‘Good job.’ ”
THE BEST PART
Here’s where Pry and Franklin come back in.
Their relationship has been around longer than other on the Penn State football coaching staff. By far. They’ve known each other for nearly a quarter of century, longer than each has known his wife, and in all kinds of roles. For the last seven football seasons — three at Vanderbilt, entering Year 5 at Penn State on Jan. 14, 2018 — James has been the boss. A benevolent one, with an open ear. But, still, the boss. And until early January 2016, Bob Shoop was the lead D-coordinator under Franklin at both Vandy and PSU.
Ganter could relate. But only kind of. Paterno was 26 years older than Ganter. Pry, who was born on April 1, 1970, is actually almost two years older than Franklin (born Feb. 2, 1972).
Back in 2010 when we talked, Ganter emphasized that his favorite part about coaching was working with the players. The next-best thing about coaching for Paterno, he said, was the one-on-one time Ganter would have with the coach when the two were on the road recruiting. Ganter’s territory was primarily New Jersey.
“For example, I would be waiting at Teterboro Airport, waiting to pick up Joe at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Ganter recalled. “Joe would fly in on a private plane. I’d spend the entire day with him.
“We’d go see three or four (high school) prospects, then check into a hotel late in the afternoon. We might go downstairs to the bar, grab a drink, then get freshened up to go make a home visit that night. The next morning I’d take him to the airport and he’d fly out to meet another one of our coaches, and they’d do the same thing.
“Those times in the car,” Ganter continued, “when it was just him and I with no outside distractions for a two-hour drive to the next high school, were when I felt more like a friend or almost equal as colleagues in what we were doing,”
“And he always went to great lengths to ask about your family. Other than that, I don’t know when you were ever alone with him. I always looked forward to that time with Joe. If I had something on my mind or a suggestion or something was bothering me, that was the time to do it, because he would listen and there were no distractions. So many people were pulling at his coattails all the time.”
THE ROAD TO NO. 1
Pry has been in demand as a head coaching prospect after at least two of the past three seasons. And, in 2017, his defense yielded an average of only 15.5 points per game, with two shutouts and three additional games where the opponent scored a touchdown or less.
So, expect more car talk between Pry and Franklin next year at this time.
Given Penn State’s recent success, at this point it’s auto-matic.
