James Franklin has to look in the mirror at night and understand that he just didn't have the final season at Penn State that he was hoping for. With higher expectations than perhaps ever before with this Nittany Lions program and Franklin under the helm, there was a lot that needed to go much better than it did. Unfortunately, Franklin ended up losing his job and, as a result, is now at Virginia Tech.
After losing his job at Penn State, Franklin is taking a different approach this time around, and it starts with what he can do better. Instead of blaming people for the past, he realizes that he needs to get back to the basics and do what he's done best throughout his career.
“The minute you think you've got this all figured out is the minute your career goes in the tank,” Franklin said, per ESPN. “Systems are really important. So that's one of the things that's been so valuable for me, getting the band back together.
“We have a system that we all know how to recruit to. I went outside of that system a little bit, took on some risk. And risk is important in business. You've got to take on some risk. But I think I probably took on a little bit too much.”
Franklin then seemingly took a shot at his coordinators at Penn State, though it's fair to mention that many weren't happy with the staff he put together last year. Penn State seemingly had a superstar staff on the offensive and defensive sides of the football, but neither top coordinator did the job. The defense was lacking at times, and we all know what the offense always looked like.
“I felt like I had become more and more and more of a CEO, which I think is important. But early on in my career at Vanderbilt, I was heavily involved in the offense, and over the years, probably got further and further away from that,” Franklin said. “The hard part is when you go out and hire really established offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators, you want to let them do their job.
“But taking this job and hiring Ty, [we] had a ton of conversations about what both of our expectations were, what he wanted, what I wanted, and we just have so much respect for one another and are comfortable with one another that I think this is going to be a really good situation.”
Virginia Tech will need to be a lot better than it has been over the past few years for the Franklin signing to make sense. Penn State is going in a different direction and is hopeful that the future is better than the past.