James Franklin admits he could’ve ‘spent more time with the local media’ at Penn State
Credit: Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK James Franklin spent more than a decade at Penn State building one of the more successful programs in recent Big Ten history. And somewhere in the sprint to get there, he never stopped to introduce himself. On Adam Breneman’s Next Up podcast, Franklin recently reflected on his tenures at Penn State and Vanderbilt and admitted that his biggest regret from both stops had less to do with what happened on the field than with how he handled the local media and fan base around it.
“Unless you’re a real football fan, a lot of people in the Northeast and specifically at Penn State, weren’t really following Vanderbilt,” Franklin said, per CBS Sports’ Brad Crawford . “You’ve got to be a real football fan to follow what was going on at Vanderbilt. I think we came there, we had a ton of respect for everything we had done in the SEC, but I don’t know if that necessarily carried all the way to the Northeast for us.
” Just days after Penn State let him go, Franklin made his first public appearance on College GameDay , which Todd McShay at the time called “messaging” and “image protection. ” Franklin has always understood how to manage his public persona on a big stage, just maybe not as much as he would’ve liked to in State College. “When I look back, that’s an area where I think we could’ve done a better job,” Franklin continued.
“Let’s take a breath, let’s spend a little bit more time with the current players. Let’s spend a little bit more time with the local media. Let’s spend a little bit more time with the local fans and fanbase.
And I felt it was just sprint, sprint, sprint, and we didn’t have time to lay that foundation the way we’d liked to. ” That history with the local beat didn’t start with last fall’s losing streak. In 2024, Franklin walked out of a press conference without answering questions about two former Penn State players who had been charged with sex crimes.