Sunday Column: As Nittany Lions Approach Potential Rebound Season, Franklin Can Earn Back Trust By Cultivating It

Media Days have come and gone. The NFL preseason is underway. Real, honest-to-goodness football is oh so close, and so is a big year for James Franklin and Penn State.

The Nittany Lions have one of the most experienced quarterbacks in college football history, some explosive young athletes in the backfield, a reshuffled offensive line that will probably be the subject of only four or five of these columns this fall, an intriguing collection of both returning and new talent along the defensive line, and what could be one of the best secondaries they’ve ever had.

They should also have a collective chip on their shoulders the size of Landon Tengwall after consecutive seasons of five or more losses. How and why Penn State came up so curiously and consistently short has already been written to death. Today, we will examine how Franklin and his team can end that surprising and sobering stretch of mediocrity.

With apologies to the famed 21^st century philosopher William Martin Joel, it’s a matter of trust.

Franklin has watched his staff—not just longtime assistant coaches Brent Pry, Ricky Rahne, Sean Spencer, but strength coach Dwight Galt and football ops chief Michael Hazel—flee the nest to pursue other opportunities during the last few years. For a coach who is by nature so heavily involved in every aspect of the program, trusting his new assistants to do their jobs—particularly as it relates to calling the plays and making adjustments on Saturdays—will be a continued test of Franklin’s emotional and mental fortitude. Yes, the head coach has final say, but the good ones know not to exercise that right so frequently that it becomes micromanaging, which is harmful not only to morale but overall efficiency as well.

Mike Yurcich must give Franklin, and the squad, and the fan base, reason to trust that his offensive system, proven at multiple previous stops, can work here for more than a drive here or there. Franklin and Yurcich must trust Sean Clifford, not only to lead the offense and the QB room but to know that they can develop the young guns behind him—something they didn’t do enough last fall—without him looking over his shoulder. Clifford, in turn, must trust his linemen to keep defenders away from him so that his footwork in the pocket stays under control, and trust his receivers, including roommate and Western Kentucky transfer Mitchell Tinsley, to make the sort of big plays that Jahan Dotson made look so routine. Ja’Juan Seider must trust Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen to learn the blitz pickups that will get them in the game and give them the opportunities to produce game-breaking runs.

Defensively, Franklin needs to give Manny Diaz the same type of trust he granted Pry—a notion easier said than done—and let the former Miami head coach employ his aggressive style with a defense that should have the athletes to pull it off against most of the opponents on the schedule. Adisa Isaac and P.J. Mustipher must trust their bodies to perform the way they did before their respective injuries, and a rebuilt linebacker group must trust the linemen to keep them free from blockers more consistently than they did last year.

Penn State’s placekicker will be the one who has earned the most trust by virtue of drilling the most kicks in practice, and whether that’s Jake Pinegar or Sander Sahaydak, Franklin will need to be able to trust him in big spots far more than he’s been able to trust kickers for most of the last few seasons.

Mostly, the Nittany Lions must trust one another, returning players and transfers and rookies alike. And they must trust their new coaches to put them in the right positions, to correct their inevitable mistakes, to walk the fine line between providing just the right amount of tough love and being an a-hole.

Now, all of this sounds—and is—fairly obvious to some extent. Good teams, never mind great teams, consistently have trust throughout the program. And winning, or at least producing in big spots, tends to build that trust. Losing, on the other hand, quietly erodes trust. Players start to wonder, if only in the back of their minds, if the coaches’ big-picture plans are going to pan out, if they might find a better opportunity to win or develop or both at another program. Quarterbacks begin to throw it a second too early because they don’t trust the line or a second too late because they don’t trust the receiver to be in the right spot. Linebackers try to make every tackle and lose leverage because they don’t trust their teammates to make the play. Fans start to lose trust in the players, the coaches, or even the administration.

Franklin must trust that Patrick Kraft will help ensure the program has everything it needs to be competitive with its peers. Kraft, who took the AD job less than a year after his predecessor locked up the head football coach for the next 10 years, must earn Franklin’s trust while watching to see if Franklin can earn his.

Penn State’s fans, meanwhile, must trust that the thousands of dollars they spend each season on tickets, parking, travel, lodging, concessions and pre- and postgame chow and beverages is worth watching what’s taking place between the sidelines. Many of them are locked in for life whether the team is 12-0 or 0-12, but others will be watching very carefully this fall to see if the last two seasons were the new norm or just a long, pandemic-influenced hiccup, and planning their future ticket purchases and Nittany Lion Club/NIL donations accordingly.

Every Saturday this fall is another opportunity to build trust or to lose it. Stack enough of it up and the Nittany Lions might win the hearts of their top recruiting targets, maybe even earn the trust of the pollsters that decide the College Football Playoff lineup. More realistically, there is an opportunity to win, or win back, the trust of those fans who are having a hard time reconciling the terms of Franklin’s contract with recent results.