Speaker 1: This is Wins and Losses with Clay Trevis, play talks
Speaker 1: with the most entertaining people in sports, entertainment and business.
Speaker 1: Now here's Clay Trevis. Welcome in Winson lost his podcast.
Speaker 1: We are off and rolling as we can roll into
Speaker 1: encourage you to check out all of these different interviews.
Speaker 1: But without any further ADO want to go ahead and
Speaker 1: jump in with Penn State football coach James Franklin and
Speaker 1: coach appreciate you coming on. If I had told you
Speaker 1: twenty five years ago that one day you would be
Speaker 1: introduced as Penn State football coach James Franklin, your response
Speaker 1: would have been, what, Yeah, I wouldn't have thought so
Speaker 1: for for a couple of reasons. You know, I set
Speaker 1: at my opening press conference that this was my dream job,
Speaker 1: being from Pennsylvania, growing up just outside of Philadelphia. But
Speaker 1: the reality is, I didn't really think it would be
Speaker 1: you know, attainable. Um. You know, I thought it would
Speaker 1: stay kind of within the family that had been here
Speaker 1: for the years. So um, you know, I just just
Speaker 1: didn't really feel like it was an option. But you know,
Speaker 1: when I when I had the opportunity, obviously it made
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. You wanted to play football at
Speaker 1: Penn State when you were growing up. What kind of
Speaker 1: athletes were you and when did you realize it might
Speaker 1: not happen, that that aspiration might not become a reality. Well,
Speaker 1: I actually came to camp here my junior year in
Speaker 1: in high school, and um, you know, Jim called Well
Speaker 1: was the quarterbacks coach at the time, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: And um, you know, I ended up, you know, go
Speaker 1: into a division to school e Straussburg, had a great
Speaker 1: experience there. Went there thinking I was going to play
Speaker 1: in the NFL, um, which which makes no sense now,
Speaker 1: but went They're thinking I was going to do that.
Speaker 1: I had a really good college experience. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: played played in one of those European leagues when I
Speaker 1: got done, and then and then got into coach and
Speaker 1: you know, really got into coaching as a graduate assistant
Speaker 1: to get my master degree. Um, so it just kind
Speaker 1: of went from there. But um, but yeah, I I
Speaker 1: you know, I thought I was good enough to play
Speaker 1: at this level. You know, I realized probably after four
Speaker 1: or five years out of college that I wasn't. Um
Speaker 1: And I went to the right place, in the right
Speaker 1: level and had a great college experience were you an
Speaker 1: athlete growing up? Yeah, so I played baseball shortstop and
Speaker 1: picture and messed around a little bit with basketball, but
Speaker 1: I was more of a baseball football guy. In football,
Speaker 1: I played running back when I was young, and then
Speaker 1: trans trans uh you know, transition to quarterback in June
Speaker 1: in middle school and like, uh, I guess probably seventh grade.
Speaker 1: Were you good? I mean, obviously you played in college,
Speaker 1: but when you were playing when you were a kid,
Speaker 1: were you the best player on the team? What kind
Speaker 1: of athlete would you describe yourself as as a kid? Yeah,
Speaker 1: at the time, I thought I was really good. Now
Speaker 1: looking back at it, I was. I was fairly average,
Speaker 1: but um, yeah, I was was one of the better teams.
Speaker 1: You know, excuse me, I was one of the better
Speaker 1: players in the area, and you know, one of the
Speaker 1: better players in the region and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: and um, you know again, had had a had a
Speaker 1: really good high school career and then went on and
Speaker 1: I had a really good, you know, college career at
Speaker 1: the Division two levels. Um, you know, I actually was
Speaker 1: a it was a finalist for the Division to Heisman
Speaker 1: or you know, I guess, you know whatever, regional finalists
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. For the Division two Heisman. So
Speaker 1: I had had a really good college experience. My head coach,
Speaker 1: my college head coaches was kind of a legend. He was.
Speaker 1: He was at my college, I think as the head
Speaker 1: coach for like fifty two years or something like that.
Speaker 1: Um so, um, you know, it just was in a
Speaker 1: was in a very very good situation and and uh
Speaker 1: and had a great college experience. All right. When you
Speaker 1: go into coaching, you said you went in initially to
Speaker 1: get your master's degree. And I'm looking here and it
Speaker 1: says your first coaching job. And sometimes this is inaccurate
Speaker 1: on bios. Sometimes it doesn't catch. It was that Cutstown
Speaker 1: where you were a wide receiver coaches that right, it was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pronounced Kutztown, which is school. Yeah, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I get, I get. So what was what was your
Speaker 1: salary when you were at how do you how do
Speaker 1: you pronounce it Kutztown Kottowns a Division two school here
Speaker 1: in the state of Pennsylvania. Um. I actually coached a
Speaker 1: tight ends, I think if I remember correctly, and I
Speaker 1: made fifteen hundred dollars for the year I lived in
Speaker 1: I lived in a local guys basement or not a
Speaker 1: basement kind of a side room named Joe Ludwig. I
Speaker 1: still talked to Joe. I rented the room for from him.
Speaker 1: I filled soda machines up in the morning before before
Speaker 1: work and school started. The players used to make fun
Speaker 1: of me. I'll be driving this white band around campus
Speaker 1: film soda machines up. And then in the off season
Speaker 1: I barred he that on Sundays at a local at
Speaker 1: a local spot. So I made fifteen hundred dollars for
Speaker 1: the year. That is amazing. So so was this. And
Speaker 1: just so you know, uh, Kutztown, there was a guy
Speaker 1: by name of John Mowdley who was there when I
Speaker 1: was there, who ended up being a really good player
Speaker 1: in the NFL for a number of years of linebacker
Speaker 1: with the Denver Broncos and and other places. Just a
Speaker 1: little piece of information there on Kutztown, which you pronounce
Speaker 1: is cutting down. I had no idea. Be sure to
Speaker 1: catch live editions about kicked the coverage with Clay Travis
Speaker 1: week days at six am Eastern, three am Pacific. So
Speaker 1: when you're when you're at Cootstown, I believe hopefully I'm
Speaker 1: getting closer there. You're making fifteen dollars you're driving around
Speaker 1: filling up soda machines, Like, are you thinking to yourself
Speaker 1: someday I'm gonna be a head coach? Or what was
Speaker 1: your game plan at that point in time? Like how
Speaker 1: many hours do you think you were working a day? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, fifteen dollars for the year is crazy. But
Speaker 1: I always like to start with how people got their started,
Speaker 1: because I think there's a lot of people out there listening.
Speaker 1: And this is the Winds and Losses podcast. I'm Clay
Speaker 1: Travis talking with Penn State football coach James Franklin. Who
Speaker 1: come out of high school or come out of college
Speaker 1: more likely, and they're like, Oh, I'm twenty two or
Speaker 1: twenty three, I need to be made in fifty k.
Speaker 1: I gotta have this job. I gotta have this car,
Speaker 1: I gotta have this apartment. And coaching is not like that.
Speaker 1: What I do for a living in sports media is
Speaker 1: not like that. A lot of these places you have
Speaker 1: to literally start at the bottom or sometimes even below
Speaker 1: the bottom. Yeah yeah, so you know, for for me,
Speaker 1: I actually at that point still didn't even though I
Speaker 1: wanted to coach. I just I got my undergraduate degree
Speaker 1: in psychology. I thought I was gonna get my doctorate
Speaker 1: in the psychology or psychiatry and kind of make a
Speaker 1: difference in people's lives that way. And UH did two
Speaker 1: internships at two psychiatric hospitals, an adult and the adolescent,
Speaker 1: and realized that's not what I wanted to do. And
Speaker 1: then when as I was coaching, I realized, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is something you know that I do really enjoy and
Speaker 1: this is something where I can still make a difference
Speaker 1: in people's lives. And at that level, you know, you're
Speaker 1: offering you know, partial scholarships to kids you know that
Speaker 1: maybe wouldn't have gone to college without it, you know,
Speaker 1: So it was it was very different, But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think to your point, I made my first year Kutztown.
Speaker 1: Then I went and played overseas for for six months,
Speaker 1: then went back to East Straullisburg as a graduate assistant
Speaker 1: for five thousand dollars for the year. Then the next year, UM,
Speaker 1: I went to James Madison, got my first big break,
Speaker 1: and that one I think I made UH thirteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for the year. And then I went to Washington
Speaker 1: State to work for Mike Price. Right after the Rose
Speaker 1: Bowl was Ryan Leaf. I was there when he was
Speaker 1: working out for UM pro day for you know, for
Speaker 1: the NFL, and I made five thousand dollars. I've been
Speaker 1: out of college four years and was making five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Then I got my first big break at Idaho State
Speaker 1: in Pocatello, Idaho, making twenty three three, and Clay, you
Speaker 1: couldn't tell me nothing. I thought I was you thought
Speaker 1: you were loaded at living in Pocatello, Idaho, had my
Speaker 1: own little apartment, my actually my special teams coordinator. Now
Speaker 1: Joe Lord was my college roommate. We split a room
Speaker 1: there and uh we were living good Man twenty three
Speaker 1: and Hotel Idle, and uh we were living good and
Speaker 1: and and and feeling good. I also see on a
Speaker 1: resume here that did you coach in Denmark? Did you
Speaker 1: coach football and Denmark? Yeah? So, so when I got
Speaker 1: done at Kutztown UM for the spring, I went and
Speaker 1: was the quarterback and offensive coordinator in Roskilde, Denmark for
Speaker 1: six months. Which it was a great experience for me
Speaker 1: because I, you know, I made the decision to do it,
Speaker 1: hadn't really thought it all through, and got on a
Speaker 1: plane for thirteen hours to a country where I didn't
Speaker 1: know anybody and didn't speak the language. It was one
Speaker 1: of the more difficult dialects for English speaking people to learn. Um,
Speaker 1: I was able to be the offensive coordinator. They had
Speaker 1: never been very good. Um. You know, my contract ended
Speaker 1: at the end of the regular season. We ended up
Speaker 1: making it to the national championship game, but my contract
Speaker 1: ran out and I had um agreed to be a
Speaker 1: graduate assistant back at EA Stroudsburg. So I actually low
Speaker 1: back at the end of the season, flew back, went
Speaker 1: to school for a week, started grad school with East Straussburg,
Speaker 1: flew back thirteen hours, flew back that weekend on Friday,
Speaker 1: played in the National Championship game on Saturday, won the
Speaker 1: National championship on Saturday, then flew back for school on
Speaker 1: Monday again. So you won a national championship in Denmark.
Speaker 1: In Denmark, Yeah, it was amazing too, because if I
Speaker 1: remember when I got there, I got to the first
Speaker 1: meeting and all the guys they have three Americans on
Speaker 1: each team and everybody else kind of just paid their
Speaker 1: own way. So you get there and there's all these
Speaker 1: guys that are smoking cigarettes and drinking beer, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was and like our uniforms
Speaker 1: looked like NASCAR. There was like advertising all over our uniforms,
Speaker 1: so it was it was an interesting deal. Had you
Speaker 1: ever been to Europe before you ended up playing and
Speaker 1: coaching in Denmark? Yeah? So, so you know, my my
Speaker 1: dad was in the Air Force and was stationed in Manchester, England,
Speaker 1: met my mom, they eloped to Ireland. He brought her
Speaker 1: back to this really romantic city called Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: they started popping out beige babies, me and my sister. Um. So,
Speaker 1: so I've been to England a few times visiting family,
Speaker 1: so everybody on my mom's side of the family isn't
Speaker 1: is in England. And then my dad got a job
Speaker 1: in Trenton, New Jersey, working for a General Motors plant
Speaker 1: and we moved there. Um and kind of that's where
Speaker 1: I was raised, just outside of Philadelphia. So that had
Speaker 1: to be pretty cool. And I think I'm not messing
Speaker 1: up right. Didn't Penn State play overseas? Didn't you guys
Speaker 1: play in uh In? Didn't you guys play in the
Speaker 1: in Ireland? Yeah? So my first game was a total nightmare. Um.
Speaker 1: We opened the season in Dublin, Ireland against Central Florida.
Speaker 1: Georgio Leary was the head coach. It was perfect at
Speaker 1: that time because it was Georgio Leary first, Bill O'Brien
Speaker 1: so too, two good Irish boys Dublin. It didn't turn
Speaker 1: out that way when Billy left and and I showed up.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was you know, Central Florida. How to
Speaker 1: buy the next week, We didn't, so we've you back Sunday,
Speaker 1: got back like four in the morning, had practiced that day.
Speaker 1: It wasn't an ideal situation. Um our equipment guy had
Speaker 1: retired like a month before two games, so trying to
Speaker 1: get all because you gotta remember, you're going to a
Speaker 1: country who doesn't have football, so you have to take
Speaker 1: everything with you. So it was it was. It was
Speaker 1: an interesting trip, but we were able to win that
Speaker 1: game with the last second field goal and and um
Speaker 1: you know that was when we first got the job,
Speaker 1: you know, after you know, pretty challenging time and Penn
Speaker 1: State's history, all right, So this is interesting because you're
Speaker 1: talking about all the logistics involved in making a travel situation.
Speaker 1: I know you pretty well and I remember one of
Speaker 1: the first times I met you at Vanderbilt. You were
Speaker 1: going through looking at the photos that have been taken
Speaker 1: to decide like what the senior photos were gonna be
Speaker 1: that we're gonna be in a pamphlet or something. Right
Speaker 1: of the players, you're very hands on with a ton
Speaker 1: of the details they go on at every program. Did
Speaker 1: you always be that? Were you always that way in
Speaker 1: terms of having your hand in you know, when you're
Speaker 1: at Vanderbilt marketing, I know you do it at Penn
Speaker 1: State now in fact that I'll just say it, like
Speaker 1: right after we went up and watched a couple of
Speaker 1: year games we've been up for, and one of the
Speaker 1: things you ask is what was the environment, Like, what
Speaker 1: did you think of the experience? A lot of coaches
Speaker 1: are just football guys. You're not just a football guy.
Speaker 1: Do you attribute that maybe to coming up through some
Speaker 1: of these schools that are not you know, I would
Speaker 1: say like sort of the name brand schools where you
Speaker 1: have to work to get attention or do you think
Speaker 1: you would have done that even if you had started
Speaker 1: off at the Alabama's and the Michigan's and the Penn
Speaker 1: States of the world. That's still just your personality. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it is my personality, There's no doubt about it. Um.
Speaker 1: It's funny, you know, I would I would describe myself
Speaker 1: as a micro manager, and I would say a lot
Speaker 1: of times it's funny because what I think drives people
Speaker 1: crazy is when you say you're not a micro manager
Speaker 1: and then you show up and the person is, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a micro manager, but I don't want to be.
Speaker 1: So what I mean by that is, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: a micro manager until you show me you can do
Speaker 1: the job, and then once you do the job, I'm
Speaker 1: stepping way. But ultimately I'm gonna be held responsible, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure it's done the way we want
Speaker 1: it done. But I do think your point is a
Speaker 1: good one. Is when you're at small schools and you
Speaker 1: have to wear a lot more hats, um, and even
Speaker 1: at a place like Vanderbilt in the SEC where you
Speaker 1: don't have maybe um a lot of the infrastructure that
Speaker 1: maybe the other schools do, you have to do it
Speaker 1: and you have to do it all. And I think
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer that the details matter and the consistency in
Speaker 1: your message matters. So um, you know, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: all over everything, um until I know someone's gonna do
Speaker 1: things the way the way you know we need them
Speaker 1: to be done. And that's where I'm fortunate to have
Speaker 1: a guy like Dwight Galton, who has been with me,
Speaker 1: you know, since since two thousand, our strength coach, and
Speaker 1: you know Andy Frank, who runs our recruiting, has been
Speaker 1: with me my entire head coach career. And Michael Hazel,
Speaker 1: one of our ops guys, and Kevin Threlko. Those guys
Speaker 1: have been with me ever since the first day at
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and all the way all the way to now
Speaker 1: here at Penn State. So there's value. And that my
Speaker 1: defensive coordinators with me the whole time. So, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's tremendous value in that. UM, no doubt about it,
Speaker 1: because those guys know how we operate. What did Maryland
Speaker 1: mean for you? You You talked about making three living in
Speaker 1: I think Postcatello, Idaho. You keep naming places that I
Speaker 1: don't even know that I've ever said before. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then you get a gig at Maryland and you come
Speaker 1: all the way back across the country. You're back on
Speaker 1: the East Coast where you spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: growing up. What did getting that job with the terms
Speaker 1: do for your career? Well, Maryland was my my first
Speaker 1: big break. Maryland was my first big break in the profession,
Speaker 1: big time football. Um. Again, you know, it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of things, you know, I was. I was lucky
Speaker 1: in some ways. So my buddy coach there, and he
Speaker 1: called me and said, hey, the receiver's coach, Craig Johnson
Speaker 1: was leaving to go to the Titans, I think at
Speaker 1: the time, and UM said, you know, um, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: try to get you involved in this job. Well, I
Speaker 1: happened to be home, and I think it was spring break,
Speaker 1: and I happened to be home in Philly because they're
Speaker 1: probably not gonna fly a guy in from pocatah idah.
Speaker 1: So I talked to the head coach and he said, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you why don't you drive up and spend
Speaker 1: the day with us, And um, it was able to
Speaker 1: get the job. Ron vander Linden was the head coach
Speaker 1: at the time. I got my first big break, went really,
Speaker 1: you know, went really well. Was excited about it. Well,
Speaker 1: at the end of that season, I'm driving across um
Speaker 1: a bridge from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. My phone rings
Speaker 1: and it's one of my players and he said, hey, coach.
Speaker 1: Are you okay? His name is Jeffar Williams and now
Speaker 1: coaches at Virginia Tech. He's like, are you okay? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like okay. He's like,
Speaker 1: you guys just got fired. I'm like, what. Pull over
Speaker 1: to the side of the road. That's how I found
Speaker 1: out about it, and then I was fortunate Ralph Regan
Speaker 1: came in uh and retained me, and we went on
Speaker 1: a pretty historic run there at Maryland went three games,
Speaker 1: uh three years, we won ten games or more, one
Speaker 1: a SEC championship, played in the BCS Orange Bowl, and
Speaker 1: and my my kind of career prop propelled from there.
Speaker 1: So I'm very appreciative of my time that Maryland and
Speaker 1: Ralph region had a huge impact on my career. The
Speaker 1: funny thing is Ron Vanderlin, who was the head coach
Speaker 1: at Maryland. He retired here in State College, Pennsylvania day
Speaker 1: speaking at our clinic next week. Fox Sports Radio has
Speaker 1: the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
Speaker 1: of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and
Speaker 1: within the I Heart radio apps. Search f s R
Speaker 1: to listen live. So we're talking to penn State football
Speaker 1: coach James Franklin, I'm Clay Travis is wins and losses.
Speaker 1: When you're at Maryland and you start recruiting a higher
Speaker 1: level of player, I think it's probably fair to say
Speaker 1: did your recruiting methods change? And and one thing I'm
Speaker 1: kind of fascinated by is how do you develop your
Speaker 1: recruiting pitch? For lack of a better term, Right, Like
Speaker 1: you're basically in the sales business. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to go out and convince sixteen seventeen, eighteen year
Speaker 1: olds that you can take them to another level in football,
Speaker 1: academics and everything else. Did it come naturally? Did you
Speaker 1: watch the way other people recruited? How do you become
Speaker 1: a good recruiter? Well? I think, first of all, I
Speaker 1: have a very curious personality. I'm very curious about a
Speaker 1: lot of different things. Um, I'm a sponge in terms
Speaker 1: of trying to gain as much information as I cancel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's like you described. I think, in any business,
Speaker 1: what do you do? You get your foot in the door,
Speaker 1: and then you try to find who are the guys
Speaker 1: on that staff or within that industry that are really good?
Speaker 1: Um at it? So you know I was coaching receivers.
Speaker 1: You're gonna find the best receivers coaches in the country,
Speaker 1: and you know you're gonna go visit those guys. Jerry
Speaker 1: Sullivan was one of the top receivers coaches in the
Speaker 1: country's time in NFL. I went and visited him. Um
Speaker 1: in Arizona the Cardinals. Um on my staff a guy
Speaker 1: by named Mike Locksley is now the head coach at Maryland. Uh,
Speaker 1: he was a great recruiter. So I kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: watched him and studied him and other guys, and then
Speaker 1: you know, and then when you're on the road, the
Speaker 1: same thing when you when you see another college coach
Speaker 1: in a high school and how he's interacting with the
Speaker 1: high school coaches and how he is with it with
Speaker 1: the players, and you're learning and asking a lot of questions.
Speaker 1: And I think at the end of the day, all
Speaker 1: those things are great. Ultimately, you better be authentic and
Speaker 1: you better be true to who you are, because um,
Speaker 1: that's what people want, you know, they want they want
Speaker 1: people that are comfortable in their own skin and authentic
Speaker 1: and gonna be honest and transparent. So um, that's that's
Speaker 1: what I tried to do, and I was able to
Speaker 1: learn a lot in a in a short period of tone.
Speaker 1: How many hours on an average week do you think
Speaker 1: you spend either recruiting, preparing for recruiting, watching film. I
Speaker 1: know it probably varies based on the time of the year,
Speaker 1: but what percentage of your day to day is focused
Speaker 1: on recruiting As a head football coach at Penn State,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's probably fifty percent of my time. So,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty percent of my time is some form
Speaker 1: of recruiting UM, you know, and then you got you know,
Speaker 1: the rest of your time is on football. But then
Speaker 1: both of those situations you kind of get pulled in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different directions. So you know, if there's
Speaker 1: an issue that comes up that you have to deal with,
Speaker 1: you're getting pulled out, you know, whatever the situation maybe
Speaker 1: that you're having to deal with UM players. You know,
Speaker 1: a player's girlfriend breaks up with him and he's heartbroken
Speaker 1: over that, or or you know, parents are getting divorced
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be. You know, as a you know,
Speaker 1: college is very different than the NFL. NFL is football
Speaker 1: and football UM scheme and fundamentals and technique and things
Speaker 1: like that. Where in college you wear you wear a
Speaker 1: lot more hats. You know, you're a fundraiser. Um, you
Speaker 1: know you're a recruiter. You know you're a schemer, you're
Speaker 1: a fundamentalists as well. Um, you're doing a lot of
Speaker 1: different things. You're a mentor, you're a big brother, your
Speaker 1: father figure to these guys. Um, you're just you're You're
Speaker 1: wearing a lot more hats than you do it than
Speaker 1: you do in the NFL. What's the best recruit tape
Speaker 1: you ever saw a player that you saw and you said,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I've got to get him on the phone.
Speaker 1: Is there one that you remember seeing and thinking this
Speaker 1: guy is unbelievable? Because I know everybody sends you the
Speaker 1: best tape that they've ever had, right, the twenty best plays,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. Is there one that you remember watching
Speaker 1: and thinking, oh my god, who is this kid? We
Speaker 1: got to find him? Well, I think what you're asking
Speaker 1: me is is a guy that that we actually recruited,
Speaker 1: you know, because I don't want to get into just
Speaker 1: some guy that you know, when I was in high
Speaker 1: school or college or or you know, did recruit. But
Speaker 1: the guy, the guy to me that that we recruited
Speaker 1: that just still um was electric. Um, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: was Tavon Austin. You know, when I was early in
Speaker 1: my career at Maryland, he was from Baltimore. I was
Speaker 1: responsible for Baltimore recruited heck at him. If you haven't
Speaker 1: watched Tavon's high school highlight tape, you should watch it,
Speaker 1: as well as his college tape at West Virginia, which
Speaker 1: which was really dynamic. Um. But you know, obviously, now
Speaker 1: becoming a head coach, I've been a part of so
Speaker 1: many you know, great players. Um, that he's a guy
Speaker 1: that first jumps into my mind right away because he
Speaker 1: just was so dynamic. Was the undersized guy but so
Speaker 1: quick and exposed. I still talked to Tavon, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's it's interesting. But he's a guy that if
Speaker 1: you haven't watched his high school and college tape before,
Speaker 1: you should watch it because it's pretty special. I remember
Speaker 1: when you go to Vanderbilt, and I think I'm correcting this,
Speaker 1: you started taking helicopters around to watch multiple high school
Speaker 1: football games. If I'm not mistaken, and I love I've
Speaker 1: always said, and you know, because you listen to the
Speaker 1: show back in the day in Nashville that you and
Speaker 1: Bruce Pearl had a lot in common, and I always
Speaker 1: liked the way that both of you carried yourselves because
Speaker 1: there's a big showman element to what you do. Do
Speaker 1: you remember how the idea I think I'm correct in
Speaker 1: the in the helicopter idea. You remember how the idea
Speaker 1: came to you? And does it? I mean it has
Speaker 1: to write like you land in the field next to
Speaker 1: a next to a football stadium. Everybody's looking over and
Speaker 1: they may not know who Vanderbilt's football coaches at the time,
Speaker 1: but suddenly you started to get a lot of buzz
Speaker 1: from doing that. Right, Well, it serves two purposes. So
Speaker 1: it started when we were at the University of Maryland
Speaker 1: and you're trying to go see two kids on one night.
Speaker 1: And the problem is if you if you have two
Speaker 1: kids in the area and you only go see one recruit,
Speaker 1: you don't write the other, you're out because you've offended
Speaker 1: that guy. So so say we're on going out on
Speaker 1: Friday night in the Maryland d C, d MV area
Speaker 1: and you've got a kid in Baltimore and you've got
Speaker 1: a kid in d C. Well that's only like a
Speaker 1: half hour apart. But when you're trying to go see
Speaker 1: a first half of one game and then fight traffic
Speaker 1: and get top. You're not gonna make it. So that's
Speaker 1: where it really started. So it does two things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get the efficiency to make make sure you can
Speaker 1: maximize a half at one game and then be able
Speaker 1: to go see it at the second half of another.
Speaker 1: That's that's the first reason, and then the SEC second reason. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt about it that there's some sex appeal
Speaker 1: to it. There's no doubt that makes that kid feel special.
Speaker 1: But here the helicopter's coming over the stadium, landing on
Speaker 1: the field. Um, and and everybody in the town and
Speaker 1: everybody school knows you're coming to see him. So it
Speaker 1: definitely does both of those things. Um. Obviously, you know
Speaker 1: those things are probably more important at that time at
Speaker 1: a place like Vanderbilt, when you know no one had
Speaker 1: ever done that before. Um and UM you know, uh,
Speaker 1: we we tried to push the limit, says much as
Speaker 1: we possibly could, um, so that we could be a
Speaker 1: part of some of those battles. But it's funny because
Speaker 1: everybody else in the in the in the SEC had
Speaker 1: private planes and we didn't. And I'll never forget, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget being at SEC head coaches meetings and that
Speaker 1: was you know, Saban and that was less Miles and
Speaker 1: that was Spurrier at that time. And I'm sitting in
Speaker 1: there as the first time head coach and they're all
Speaker 1: talking about private planes and how this new a D
Speaker 1: came in and put this policy that on the private
Speaker 1: plane there's got to be two pilots, you know, to
Speaker 1: make sure you know, something happens with one, there's another pilot.
Speaker 1: What a great idea that was. And I was like,
Speaker 1: it's funny because because Avandabilt we always have two pilots.
Speaker 1: And they're like, are you seriously go yeah, Southwest? You
Speaker 1: know there's only pilots in Southwest behind that locked door.
Speaker 1: Because we didn't have any of that. So the helicopters
Speaker 1: were really valuable, and being right in Nashville, you could
Speaker 1: get them and they land right there on the practice field.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions about kicked the coverage
Speaker 1: with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern, three
Speaker 1: am Pacific. We're talking to James Franklin pin State football
Speaker 1: coaches wins and losses. I'm Clay Travis. Oh you mentioned that, uh,
Speaker 1: and I want to go to it. You get your
Speaker 1: first head coaching job at Vanderbilt. And I've talked on
Speaker 1: my radio showing on this program about how when I
Speaker 1: got the job at Fox, the first big event we had,
Speaker 1: I remember looking around and being like, holy crap, that's
Speaker 1: Troy Aikman, that's Jimmy Johnson, that's Terry Bradshaw, you know,
Speaker 1: all of the luminescent superstars that I had watched do Fox.
Speaker 1: You know, Joe Buck, all the guys who've been calling
Speaker 1: the big games for years and years, and suddenly I'm
Speaker 1: one of them. And it's like a pinch yourself moment
Speaker 1: when you walk in as a head coach for the
Speaker 1: first time and you see Nick Saban and I think
Speaker 1: at the time it was Less Miles and uh and
Speaker 1: and a lot of guys who have had tremendous success
Speaker 1: that probably you've been watching from afar. What does that
Speaker 1: feel like to suddenly be in the same room and
Speaker 1: have the same job and suddenly be competing against him?
Speaker 1: Steve Steve Spurrier was another way, you know, like we're
Speaker 1: talking about iconic and legendary coaches, not just coaches. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the SEC was loaded at that time, not not that
Speaker 1: it isn't always, but it was out at that time
Speaker 1: with some some really you know, um, like you're saying,
Speaker 1: iconic coaches. So I used to always try to find
Speaker 1: a way to sit, you know, right between Les Miles
Speaker 1: and Steve Spurrier because it was like straight comedy show
Speaker 1: the whole time. And then the other thing is Spurry
Speaker 1: was the only one that would mess with Saban, so
Speaker 1: he would kind of jab and poke it at, poke
Speaker 1: at Saban, uh during the meetings. So I'm just sitting
Speaker 1: there kind of a young ball coach trying to kind
Speaker 1: of take it all in and figure it out. Um
Speaker 1: and everybody, you know, everybody was great, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: I learned a lot. You know. Mike's live was a commissioner,
Speaker 1: and I just thought he was magical in that room.
Speaker 1: How he could manage all those personalities and manage all
Speaker 1: those egos, and you'd leave the room and everybody was
Speaker 1: on the same page. And it may have not have
Speaker 1: been in everybody's best interest, but it was in the
Speaker 1: best interest of the SEC. I just thought he was
Speaker 1: magical in that room in terms of managing all those personalities. So, uh,
Speaker 1: it was, it was, it was pretty it was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: You get hired by David Williams, who was my law
Speaker 1: professor at Vanderbilt, an absolutely phenomenal guy. What did he
Speaker 1: mean to Vanderbilt and a Vanderbilt athletics and what did
Speaker 1: he mean to you? David is like a father figure
Speaker 1: to me. Was was like a father figure to me.
Speaker 1: Um obviously was someone that took a chance on me. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I wasn't a hot sexy name when when
Speaker 1: I got offered a Vanderbilt job. Um, and David was great.
Speaker 1: The first year, Um, David, David was tough. I'd go
Speaker 1: to David with things that we wanted to do, and
Speaker 1: you know, I'd find out what other schools were doing
Speaker 1: and we wanted to do it as well, and you know, Um,
Speaker 1: David would ask me, well, what about this? What about this?
Speaker 1: What about this? You couldn't go with Dave to David
Speaker 1: with things unless you were really thorough. And after a
Speaker 1: year he realized that every time that I went to
Speaker 1: him with something, it was well thought out, it was detailed,
Speaker 1: that it was organized. So from that point on, UM,
Speaker 1: it was basically, you're the expert of football. I'm the
Speaker 1: expert at Vanderbilt, and let's work together to get this
Speaker 1: thing done, and we were able to get a lot
Speaker 1: done in a very short period of time. John Ingram
Speaker 1: was a big part of that as well. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the Ingram family there in Nashville and on the board. Um,
Speaker 1: and we were able to get a lot done in
Speaker 1: a short period of time. But David was like a
Speaker 1: father figure for me. He was a mentor professionally. UM
Speaker 1: and um you know him and Gail, his wife. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm still very close with Gal. I went
Speaker 1: to the funeral when David passed. Um, you know, so,
Speaker 1: but I still get kind of emotional thinking about it
Speaker 1: because because David. David was a giant, and David always
Speaker 1: amazed me because you'd see David and be wearing sweats,
Speaker 1: and you know, people wouldn't know what to expect. Then
Speaker 1: David would open his mouth and just blow people away.
Speaker 1: And he wouldn't say a whole lot, but then when
Speaker 1: he did, he would just blow people away. People don't realize.
Speaker 1: You know, he was not only the athletic director, but
Speaker 1: he was to the chief legal counsel for the university
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, I don't know if there's
Speaker 1: anybody in the country that could wear those two hats
Speaker 1: on college campus. Look, I said before, but he was
Speaker 1: my taxation of nonprofit entities professor in law school. And
Speaker 1: that sounds like the most boring topic of magic. Like
Speaker 1: your your eyes probably rolled back in your head. Everybody
Speaker 1: who's listening right now is like, my god, of all
Speaker 1: the law classes you could have, the guy was brilliant
Speaker 1: and he could play the tax code like it was
Speaker 1: a piano, like he was, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: like he was Elton John or Stevie Wonder right. Like
Speaker 1: it opened my eyes so much to how much creativity
Speaker 1: there can be in oftentimes what seems to be a
Speaker 1: very dry and uninteresting topic. And a big part of
Speaker 1: the way he would talk was he had done things
Speaker 1: at Ohio State and at Vanderbilt, which are five oh
Speaker 1: one c three institutions nonprofit entities. But I just remember
Speaker 1: being blown away by how good that class was, and
Speaker 1: then I actually got there. You know, he would bring
Speaker 1: me back and occasionally I would speak to sports law class,
Speaker 1: and what always amazed me. And I'm sure you you
Speaker 1: see this too, because it becomes such an important part
Speaker 1: of coaching. You have to know something so well in
Speaker 1: order to instruct someone that you can make it simple.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people who are smart
Speaker 1: that can't explain complex things in ways that are easily
Speaker 1: able to be digested, and he could. And I think
Speaker 1: that's always the most impressive thing about intelligence to me,
Speaker 1: is functional intelligence as opposed to just intelligence. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that's the most powerful tool that they're the most successful
Speaker 1: people that are able to do that. Take a complex,
Speaker 1: challenging subject and make it, like you're saying, make it
Speaker 1: manageable and make it easily understandable. Uh. And David David
Speaker 1: was unbelievable with that and in so many different ways,
Speaker 1: he really was. And uh, if you've never if you
Speaker 1: never had the opportunity. David was a huge Motown guy,
Speaker 1: and he had a motown presentation that he would do
Speaker 1: sometimes in different settings, and that was that was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: His presentation in his history and his understanding emote town
Speaker 1: and the roots of it were phenomenal. So David was great.
Speaker 1: And then obviously being there, you know, in Nashville and
Speaker 1: you know, um, you know, being able to open a
Speaker 1: lot of different you know, um, you know doors in
Speaker 1: that community for me as well, UM, was was powerful.
Speaker 1: So David David's a huge mentor in my life. You
Speaker 1: win back to back nine games, which hadn't been done
Speaker 1: since before women got the right to vote at Vanderbilt,
Speaker 1: I think, which is a way of putting it in context.
Speaker 1: And then you get an opportunity. I'm sure I know
Speaker 1: you had opportunities before, but Penn State comes open. How
Speaker 1: hard was it to move to Penn State, UH and
Speaker 1: make that decision to leave? Well, I think obviously if
Speaker 1: you just take the relationship aspect out of it, you
Speaker 1: take the emotional aspect out of it, then a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and I don't mean this to to to
Speaker 1: offend anybody, but a lot of people say it's an
Speaker 1: easy decision. It was not. Um. I actually had a
Speaker 1: you know, interview uh with Penn State. I interviewed with
Speaker 1: the Houston Texans. I interviewed with the University of Texas,
Speaker 1: and I had interviews with the Detroit Lions and the
Speaker 1: Washington Redskins, UM and you know, then I get offered
Speaker 1: the Penn State job, and I struggled. I struggled with
Speaker 1: whether to take the job because I cared so much
Speaker 1: about that place. I cared so much about the players
Speaker 1: on the team. We had invested so much. We had
Speaker 1: poured our hearts and soul into that place that it's
Speaker 1: hard to walk away. And you know, people are advising
Speaker 1: me that I needed to do it, but um, I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, we had a team meeting that I was
Speaker 1: going to bring the whole team in and I was
Speaker 1: gonna get up in front of them and say goodbye.
Speaker 1: And and I remember being on the phone, you know,
Speaker 1: with my wife, um and and struggling on you know,
Speaker 1: what to do, and not sure if I wanted to
Speaker 1: do it. So you know, it's hard. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of times coaches get criticized for these decisions they make,
Speaker 1: and you know, the money that's in it. I I
Speaker 1: get all those these I get all those things, but
Speaker 1: these are these are very difficult decisions because I do
Speaker 1: believe that most coaches are in this for the right reasons.
Speaker 1: And it's about it's about the players, and it's about education,
Speaker 1: and it's about developing. It's also about winning. I get
Speaker 1: that too, but I think most guys are in it
Speaker 1: for the right reasons. Um uh, you know, and obviously
Speaker 1: the opportunities and the finances are a factor too, but
Speaker 1: it's also about where can you go where you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to be able to win because this is
Speaker 1: a cutthroat business and if you don't win, um, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be out. So it's hard to balance all those
Speaker 1: feelings and those emotions. But um, it's not as easy
Speaker 1: as maybe it appears. To be your wife foomy you
Speaker 1: just mentioned. You didn't say her name, but she's fantastic.
Speaker 1: She's very similar in many ways to my wife. Really smart,
Speaker 1: but also totally unwilling to let you get a pass
Speaker 1: on anything, i e. She calls you on your bullshit
Speaker 1: like my wife calls me on my bullshit. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: why is that important? Like in general, because when you
Speaker 1: work as many hours as you do, Uh, it can
Speaker 1: be a challenge. I know, you've got kids and everything else.
Speaker 1: What is you know, A big part of success, I
Speaker 1: really believe is the environment that's not just at work
Speaker 1: but also is at home. How instrumental is she to
Speaker 1: allowing you to be as successful as you are? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's two parts, not number one. It's
Speaker 1: someone that's gonna ground you, you know, someone that's always
Speaker 1: going to tell you the truth, never gonna allow you.
Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of people when you have some
Speaker 1: success and this is wins and losses. Who will tell
Speaker 1: you you're great, right that they will, they will, they
Speaker 1: will pump you up, and they're not necessarily being honest. Yes, funny,
Speaker 1: laugh at all, You're not funny all of it. So
Speaker 1: having someone at home that's gonna be your truth teller,
Speaker 1: someone that's always going to tell you the truth, that
Speaker 1: ultimately cares about you, and and and make sure that
Speaker 1: you know every single day this is what you do.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not who you are. It doesn't define you.
Speaker 1: So I think that is that is critical. Um, And
Speaker 1: then I think it's also you better have someone that's
Speaker 1: not only smart and strong but also independent because, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the reality is there's a lot of nights
Speaker 1: where I'm not home to tuck the girls in bed,
Speaker 1: and and they don't see me when I go to
Speaker 1: when I go to work in the morning. So so
Speaker 1: not only someone that's gonna be, you know, a foundation
Speaker 1: for me and someone that grounds me, and someone's going
Speaker 1: to be my truth teller, but also someone that's strong
Speaker 1: enough and independent enough to to be to be a
Speaker 1: single mom. Sometimes I hate to describe it that way,
Speaker 1: but there's times a year where it is like that
Speaker 1: you know, so, Um, you know, having that person is
Speaker 1: I think critical behind the scenes, because we all know
Speaker 1: if you're if you're healthy and happy at home, then
Speaker 1: you've got a chance to be healthy and happy at work.
Speaker 1: You mentioned a bunch of NFL interviews there you coached
Speaker 1: one year in Green Bay. What's the biggest difference between
Speaker 1: coaching and the NFL and coaching in college. Well, for
Speaker 1: me that there's things that I really liked about the NFL.
Speaker 1: There was things that I did, There's things I like
Speaker 1: about college, and there's things that that I that I don't. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I would, I'd
Speaker 1: say the big difference about the NFL is when when
Speaker 1: you're off in the NFL, you're off, like those guys
Speaker 1: go on vacation who turn their phones off. They're gone,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, in college, you're never really off. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, the end of the day, they go home
Speaker 1: to NFL guys go home to their families. You go
Speaker 1: home to yours. Your phone is not ringing, where in college,
Speaker 1: recruits are calling you, players are calling you with issues
Speaker 1: that you're trying to mentor and help them through. You're
Speaker 1: never really off in college. So I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest difference. But the other end of it is you
Speaker 1: don't have the impact. I think it comes back to
Speaker 1: your why, like it does in any business. Why you
Speaker 1: do it, What motivates you, what drives you to get
Speaker 1: out of bed in the morning and and try to
Speaker 1: be the best version of yourself. You're possibly ken. So
Speaker 1: for me, I got into this profession. Um, I love football,
Speaker 1: but I got in this profession because I wanted to
Speaker 1: help help young men. I wanted to use the game
Speaker 1: of football to teach life, life, life lessons, championship habits
Speaker 1: that are going to allow to be successful football, yes,
Speaker 1: but more importantly in life. And the NFL that's not
Speaker 1: what it was. It was football and football only and
Speaker 1: you weren't having that type of impact on their on
Speaker 1: their development as people. Um. So I loved it. It
Speaker 1: was awesome, had a great experience. I was in you know,
Speaker 1: I was in Green Bay and um you know, Brett
Speaker 1: farg was our quarterback. We drafted Aaron Rodgers that year.
Speaker 1: He was a rookie. You know, with us that that
Speaker 1: entire year. Donald Driver, who I still talked to, Um
Speaker 1: it was was was my wide out, was one of
Speaker 1: my whiteouts. Was kind of the leader of the room
Speaker 1: for me. But I had a great experience at a
Speaker 1: great experience Green Bay a little bit like a college
Speaker 1: you know, feel anyway, But I had a great experience.
Speaker 1: Does any part of you, let's say you win a
Speaker 1: national championship or two at Penn State and you've been close,
Speaker 1: you've been in the mix. I think I've got you
Speaker 1: probably know the data because I know, uh, I know
Speaker 1: Penn States tweeted out, but I think it's something like
Speaker 1: the last five years, the three winning coaches in college
Speaker 1: football are Nick Saban, Davo Sweeney, and you. Uh so
Speaker 1: you're in obviously high high company there for current college
Speaker 1: football coaches. Does any part of you think at some
Speaker 1: point I'd like to be a head coach in the NFL,
Speaker 1: might be fifteen years from now, you know you coached,
Speaker 1: or your seventy if you wanted to. Does any part
Speaker 1: of you think that that would be a challenge you
Speaker 1: would like to explore At this point right now, I'm
Speaker 1: so consumed on Penn State. I'm so consumed on our
Speaker 1: players here and what we're building. And again when it
Speaker 1: goes back to my why and why I do this? Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you know it's I'm totally entrenched in this, But is
Speaker 1: there an aspect where in the off seas is in
Speaker 1: you know, people call or reach out and there's interest,
Speaker 1: and you kind of take a minute and you think
Speaker 1: about those things. Um, it's hard for me to say,
Speaker 1: you know, how I'll feel ten years from now, or
Speaker 1: how how I'll feel fifteen years from now. But right now,
Speaker 1: my focus is completely on Penn State. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I have a little personal goal of you know, being
Speaker 1: the first African American coach to win a national championship. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, So you know, right now all of our
Speaker 1: energy and and UM focuses on that, you know, So
Speaker 1: it's not a whole lot of room left for anything
Speaker 1: else at this point? Do you feel more pressure as
Speaker 1: a black head coach to try to open the door?
Speaker 1: And look, I'm a white guy, so I don't understand
Speaker 1: the experience. But if you talk to black head coaches,
Speaker 1: you can say, hey, it's not only that I feel
Speaker 1: like the standard is maybe more difficult. It's that if
Speaker 1: I fail, the door doesn't stay open as wide for
Speaker 1: the next guy who might come up. Is that an
Speaker 1: accurate thought in your mind? Now, you said you want
Speaker 1: to be the first black head coach to win a
Speaker 1: college football national championship. Is that partly for kicking the
Speaker 1: door more open to provide more opportunity to the next
Speaker 1: James Franklin, Well, yeah, I think that's that's all. That's
Speaker 1: that's in all of the back of our minds is
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's critical that that I'm successful. It's
Speaker 1: critical that we're successful because it will create more opportunities.
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at the numbers right now
Speaker 1: and the hundreds and thirty two Division one schools, there's
Speaker 1: there's not a whole lot um. And you know, I
Speaker 1: remember sitting back at that Super Bowl UM when it
Speaker 1: was love E Smith and herm I think it was,
Speaker 1: And I remember everybody saying, well, this is a pretty
Speaker 1: special moment. I think, sorry to cut you off. I
Speaker 1: think it was a lovely Smith and and uh Tony
Speaker 1: Dungee because I think that was the one that yeah,
Speaker 1: you're yeah, you're exactly right, I misspoke. UM. But I
Speaker 1: remember by kind of sitting back and saying, hey, this
Speaker 1: is a historical moment here, and this is going to
Speaker 1: open the doors. I don't know if it necessarily has
Speaker 1: done that. You look at the NFL. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's necessarily done that, but but obviously when people
Speaker 1: can sit back and see people, um, you know, in
Speaker 1: that job and in that role, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it helps. So yeah, I think, you know, I've
Speaker 1: always kind of had the mentality that, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to do it not only for Penn State, and
Speaker 1: I want to do it not only for our players
Speaker 1: and our assistant coaches and and and and for James Franklin,
Speaker 1: but also for the for the young guys that are
Speaker 1: coming up. Hopefully it will create more opportunities. I do
Speaker 1: think there's a little bit more pressure, um, you know,
Speaker 1: because you feel like you're carrying that extra weight. Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Speaker 1: Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
Speaker 1: com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f
Speaker 1: s R to listen live. We're talking to James Franklin,
Speaker 1: Penn State football coach. I'm Clay Travis Wins and Losses.
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I've been up to Penn State seen
Speaker 1: the experience you guys have created a phenomenal situation there.
Speaker 1: Uh the game that I was up for most recently,
Speaker 1: I think I've only been up for one, my wife
Speaker 1: has been up for a few You guys lost late
Speaker 1: to Ohio State. Uh, when you lose a game that
Speaker 1: is very close and is is right on the hit
Speaker 1: the edge of victory or defeat, how long does it take?
Speaker 1: This is a wins and Losses podcast. How long does
Speaker 1: it take you to get over that loss? And how
Speaker 1: do you distill something from it? Do you think you
Speaker 1: learn more from wins or defeat? Well? I think I
Speaker 1: think that's a that's a great subject and we could
Speaker 1: probably talk about that for a while. That that's an
Speaker 1: area really the last couple of years that I knew
Speaker 1: I had to get better because I think as a
Speaker 1: head coach, um, if you don't get over it, then
Speaker 1: nobody does. The assistant coaches don't get over the players
Speaker 1: don't get over it. And that's after wins or losses.
Speaker 1: You gotta move on, You gotta you gotta flush it,
Speaker 1: and you gotta move on. It's poison to get caught
Speaker 1: up in either either either one the praise, you know,
Speaker 1: or the criticism. Um, and I probably didn't do a
Speaker 1: good enough job of that in my past of how
Speaker 1: to manage the loss is how to move on from
Speaker 1: the losses the real it is. Um, you know, you
Speaker 1: can learn a lot from them, There's no doubt about
Speaker 1: it if you're handled the right way. The problem is
Speaker 1: is everybody gets defensive and sensitive after losses, and what
Speaker 1: you hope you can do is you can grow through
Speaker 1: wins and you know, make sure everybody in your organization realizes, Okay,
Speaker 1: we won these games, but these are still things that
Speaker 1: we have to get corrected so we can continue this.
Speaker 1: And I think in a lot of ways, the winning
Speaker 1: is harder to handle for college aged kids, um than
Speaker 1: than the losses are. Sometimes sometimes they're more resilient, um,
Speaker 1: you know after the losses, but the wins you've got
Speaker 1: to make sure you're staying grounded. So uh, it's hard
Speaker 1: to go. And that's something I really focused on the
Speaker 1: last couple of years that I can't ask everybody else
Speaker 1: to move on and attack the next objective. Um, if
Speaker 1: I haven't done that. This is a ridiculous comparison, But
Speaker 1: I'm coaching eight nine year old basketball. We've lost a
Speaker 1: game that we should have won to win that you
Speaker 1: caampionship eight nine year old basketball, James. I couldn't sleep
Speaker 1: that night. I was going over every play in my head.
Speaker 1: I didn't even want to confess to my wife that
Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep because it was eight nine year old basketball.
Speaker 1: But as the coach, I felt like we had blown it,
Speaker 1: and maybe I should We should have won the game, right,
Speaker 1: we were the more talented team. When you lose a game,
Speaker 1: are it has to be the case that it's almost
Speaker 1: impossible to go to sleep afterwards, because for a game
Speaker 1: like that, your your intensity level has to be so
Speaker 1: high that it's almost impossible to come back down right.
Speaker 1: Yet you have to do it because six days later
Speaker 1: the same things happening all over again. How do you
Speaker 1: control your emotions and do it? And Sundays are a grind.
Speaker 1: Sundays are like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, there are the heaviest
Speaker 1: days of our week. So that's a problem because after
Speaker 1: the big wins, it's hard to get to sleep. And
Speaker 1: after the losses, Uh, it's really challenging for me. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hit the bed. Don't remember getting in the bed.
Speaker 1: Ball you're out because you're working so many hours. You
Speaker 1: just hit the bed and you're out. Correct. Like my wife,
Speaker 1: it really pisces her off because we'll go in, I'll
Speaker 1: brush my teeth, she brushes her teeth, she washes her face,
Speaker 1: or jumps in the shower. By time she gets out,
Speaker 1: I'm gone, like I'm out, you know. But then the
Speaker 1: problem is I'll wake up in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night to go to bathroom or something like that, like
Speaker 1: like we do once you get over forty five years old,
Speaker 1: and then my mind starts spinning and I start thinking
Speaker 1: about all the things, and then I can't go back
Speaker 1: to sleep. So then I'll just I'll come into office
Speaker 1: because just laying there in the bed it doesn't make
Speaker 1: a whole lot of sense. But then it puts you behind,
Speaker 1: put you behind on sleep, and then all of a sudden, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Speaker 1: You know, by the time that next you know, Thursday
Speaker 1: night comes, you're you're you're pretty war out. So that's
Speaker 1: the challenge. How can you Because for most coaches and me,
Speaker 1: I can really operate at a pretty high level with
Speaker 1: five hours of sleep at night. But if I start
Speaker 1: getting under that um and those days add up, then
Speaker 1: then it can be challenging. And then I'll us you're
Speaker 1: less effective and you're not as productive, and you're not
Speaker 1: making as good as decisions. So if you're not careful
Speaker 1: those things. Can those things conspiral? You know those things conspiral?
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch live editions about kicked the coverage
Speaker 1: with Clay Travis week days at six am Eastern, three
Speaker 1: am Pacific. When you self assess and I know you
Speaker 1: just signed a new contract to stay at Penn State
Speaker 1: for many more years, congratulations on that. How close do
Speaker 1: you think you are You've already won a Big ten championship.
Speaker 1: How close do you think the program is to taking
Speaker 1: the proverbial next step making a playoff, being able to
Speaker 1: contend for a national championship. Well, we're close, you know.
Speaker 1: Obviously we've been. We've been very close. I mean you
Speaker 1: look at us. We've played in three We've played in
Speaker 1: three New Year's six Bowl games in the last four years.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been ranked as high as number two
Speaker 1: in the country. Um, you know, so we're close. You
Speaker 1: know the our conference, um, you know, the Big Tennis
Speaker 1: a little bit like the SEC West. You got Ohio State, Michigan,
Speaker 1: Michigan State, and Penn's Date all in the same side
Speaker 1: of the conference. Um. So it's it's challenging and it
Speaker 1: and it is a battle, There's no doubt about it. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's hard to get into the top twenty five.
Speaker 1: It's hard to go from the top twenty five into
Speaker 1: the top fifteen. And I would make the argument it's
Speaker 1: even more challenging to get into that top four because
Speaker 1: the top four to five programs in the country. That
Speaker 1: drop off to the to the top ten is significant,
Speaker 1: probably much more significant than anywhere else. So, uh, you
Speaker 1: know those things are really really important that you keep
Speaker 1: battling and scratching and clawing for all those little all
Speaker 1: those little margins of error that you're trying to close
Speaker 1: the gap. I only have a couple more questions for
Speaker 1: you when you sit back and think about your career
Speaker 1: so far. What loss, what, what when are you most
Speaker 1: proud of? And what loss sticks with you the most.
Speaker 1: So I'm not a favorite guy, and that's what anything
Speaker 1: that's with games, that's with food, debts with music. So
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to say, like, who's my favorite player.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to say what's my favorite win?
Speaker 1: Um or toughest loss? That that's hard to say. Um.
Speaker 1: The one thing I would probably say, and not necessarily
Speaker 1: because of the game, but but something else. But we
Speaker 1: beat Ohio State at our place a few years back. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, blocked the field goal, ran back for touchdown,
Speaker 1: you know, played really well. Um. And one that it
Speaker 1: was a white out. If you haven't, if you've never
Speaker 1: been to a Penn State white out game, you need
Speaker 1: to do that. It's it's tremendous. But what made it
Speaker 1: special for me is the young man who blocked the
Speaker 1: field goal and the other guy who picked up the
Speaker 1: ball up and ran in for touchdown. His there, his
Speaker 1: dad took those two gloves, had him autograph it, had
Speaker 1: a picture of it, and put all that in a
Speaker 1: frame for me and gave it to me. So that's
Speaker 1: one of my prize prize possessions because it's so personal.
Speaker 1: Last question for you, how do you balance being a
Speaker 1: good dad, being a good husband, and also being incredibly
Speaker 1: successful Because there's a lot of people out there listening,
Speaker 1: regardless of what they do for a living, they struggle
Speaker 1: with that. What have you found that works for you? Again,
Speaker 1: I think it goes back to that micro managing deal
Speaker 1: where I think you gotta be honest and you've got
Speaker 1: to be transparent. So for me to sit here and
Speaker 1: tell you right now that I have balanced in my life,
Speaker 1: I do not. UM. I struggle every single day. I
Speaker 1: have I have UM football coach guilt. I have guilt
Speaker 1: about it about the time that I spend with my wife,
Speaker 1: the time that I spend with my daughters. UM. For
Speaker 1: me to sit here and say I have balanced, I don't,
Speaker 1: you know. So I struggle with that every single day,
Speaker 1: trying to be the best dad I possibly can be,
Speaker 1: be the best husband I possibly could be, be the
Speaker 1: best football coach I possibly can be. UM. And the
Speaker 1: reality there's times where I'm able to pour everything into
Speaker 1: the dad role or the husband role and the coach role,
Speaker 1: but it's not balanced. UM, you know. And I just
Speaker 1: try to do the best I possibly can every single day.
Speaker 1: But I think being upfront and honest about that helps.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing that helps is being the
Speaker 1: head coach. I've created an environment here where my wife
Speaker 1: and kids as well as as well as the other
Speaker 1: coaches and their kids. UM, they come in that office
Speaker 1: all the time. So you know, the other day, my
Speaker 1: daughter Sola was in here in the office with me
Speaker 1: for nine hours. They had a day off. She spent
Speaker 1: the entire day with me. Um. She's running around the
Speaker 1: office kind of seeing all her uncles, and down in
Speaker 1: this in the nutrition bar, making smoothies for the players
Speaker 1: and things like that. You know, so that that's how
Speaker 1: we do it, and it you know, probably isn't um
Speaker 1: you know, probably isn't ideal, but it's how we maximize
Speaker 1: it the best we possibly can. Outstanding stuff. I know
Speaker 1: you're a busy man. Appreciate the time. It's James Franklin,
Speaker 1: Pin State football coach. This has been wins and losses
Speaker 1: with Clay Travis. Thanks my man, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: How a going buddy. Fox Sports Radio has the best
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