Coach James Franklin has restored Nittany Lions' pride – and joy

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Every aspiring head coach in college football seemingly has a master plan, copious notes and ideas about how to run a program gathered over years as an assistant. Maybe it is written in a notebook or scratched out on legal pads. Could be printed out and stacked in a file folder or two.

James Franklin's master plan is in a three-ring binder, about 8 inches thick, and it sits on a book shelf in his office at Penn State.

"Training. Camps. Clinics. Fundraising. Spring. Fall. Potential staff members. Offensive staff. Defensive staff. Administrative staff. Strength staff. Special teams. Practice plans. Staff duties. Team prayer. Ticket policy," he rattles off the names of the sections and he is not even half done.

The 45-year-old Franklin has it all covered. He said he hardly ever opens the binder anymore, but the plan appears to be working to perfection.

In his fourth season as coach at Penn State (7-0), Franklin has the No. 2 team in the country and the Nittany Lions are playing as well as they did in Joe Paterno's prime. Coaching in a division that was supposed to be owned by Ohio State's Urban Meyer and Michigan's Jim Harbaugh, Franklin's team is the defending champion.

Franklin has also done something else: He has restored the pride in Penn State football to pre-Jerry Sandusky scandal levels, leading with a grand vision and big, bold personality. He is in many ways the epitome of the 21st century college football coach: An energetic CEO who has his hands in everything while giving his assistants room to work. Cool enough to relate to the players, but demanding enough to get them to embrace his process and give him their respect.

"Every game is like the Super Bowl for us," Heisman Trophy-contending running back Saquon Barkley said Wednesday, three days before Penn State visited No. 6 Ohio State for one of the biggest games of the season.

Franklin grew up in the Philadelphia area with a father who was in and out of his life. Jim Franklin, Franklin said, became violent when he drank. Once the younger Franklin became old enough to stand up for himself and his mother, Josie, his father left for good.

"What I learned very early on is that if you have a cycle in your family, whether it's alcohol or abuse, the best way to break that cycle, the higher-educated you are the better chance you have of not repeating it," Franklin said during a pre-dawn interview in his office this week. "I had major fears that I was going to turn into my father."

Franklin played quarterback at Division II East Stroudsburg in northeast Pennsylvania and majored in psychology. He became a graduate assistant coach mostly to pay for grad school.

In coaching, he found a way to be a fixer. He could help kids get into college and change lives. It didn't take him long to start compiling that binder and get on track to be a head coach.

"He was really high-energy and it kind of slapped you in the face when you first meet him and get to know him," said Penn State strength and conditioning coach Dwight Galt, who was at Maryland when Franklin was hired as an assistant by the school in 2000. "It got my attention."

Many Penn Staters wanted one of their own to take over the program. Instead they got Franklin, a gregarious charmer who never misses an opportunity to promote the program.

"It takes time to understand that none of that for James is show," said Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour, hired seven months after Franklin. "You have to have a certain level of exposure to him to understand that's him. And it's him all the time."

There is little doubt that Franklin's ability to connect with people and his boundless enthusiasm are pivotal to his success.