Ex-Penn State head coach James Franklin has to understand that the reason he isn’t with the Nittany Lions anymore is due to him not doing his job as well as he needed to.
When speaking about his final season at Penn State, it didn’t sound like he was looking to blame anyone else. If anything, he understands that some might have been frustrated with him, but he didn’t stick to his philosophy, and it backfired on him.
"One of the things I talk to this team about is that coaches are constantly challenging players to get better. We should be growing and evolving constantly. And the same goes for coaches. Through this experience, my 15 years, and then what happened this past year, I think we took on some risks thinking that we needed to take on some risks to get over the hump and get those last few wins…
“I took on some risks that I typically don't take on. And then even philosophically, I'm a big 1-0 guy. 1-0, 1-0, almost to the frustration of a lot of people. And last year, again, trying something different, trying to be a little bit more aggressive, allowed our team and our coaches to talk more big picture than we ever have...There's some risks that you're going to have to take in any business model, but there's also some risks that I would not take again,” he said, per Brody Bryan.
The hype isn’t nearly as big as it was at Penn State for Franklin now, but he’s expected to win at Virginia Tech. Reports have indicated that the Hokies have spent a good amount of money to ensure they have a competitive team.
Franklin, now understanding that he can’t look ahead, will be challenged with keeping that excitement at a respectable level and finishing the job.
"There was a lot of excitement about the season," Franklin said. "Players were excited, and obviously we were trying to take that next step. So we made some philosophical tweaks and changes to be more aggressive and maybe more aware of these types of things and allowed the players to have conversations and allowed the staff to have conversations that we typically hadn't in the past."