UNIVERSITY PARK– Penn State coach James Franklin knows how low people are on his team right now, but also knows that one game doesn’t make a season, and also doesn’t feel that several big-game failures define his career.
“I‘m not going to allow one loss to define our season,” Franklin said during his Monday press conference, “and I’m not going to allow a few losses to define my career and what we have done here at Penn State. Because although I don’t think people spend a lot of time on what we’ve done over our 12 years here, and I get it, nobody wants to hear this right now, there’s a ton of positives.”
This echoes what Franklin said after the team’s 30-24 double-overtime loss to Oregon Saturday.
“I try to look at the entire picture and what we’ve been able to do here,” Franklin said.
Indeed, Penn State has had a lot of success, reaching double-digit wins six times in Franklin’s 11 seasons, with appearances in seven New Year’s Six bowl games and wins in four.
But Franklin is 4-21 against top 10 teams. That simply isn’t going to cut it for a lot of people. Franklin knows it needs to be better, but also looks at the upside, too.
ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE
Head Coach James Franklin at Penn State Football’s 2025 Photo Day.
For Franklin, it does little good to focus solely on the bad things.
Penn State football is in a better state than most, and Franklin has mentioned that before.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“I say this as someone who’s trying to look at the positives here and move this program in the right direction and take the step that we need to take this week,” Franklin said. “So I want this to come off as me stating some positives to answer your question and not just focus on the negatives, because I don’t think that helps solve the problem. Screaming, yelling, pointing fingers, we’re not going to do. Also, there’s a part of making sure I represent this program, this university, the right way, and do it with class and integrity. That probably shows up more in times like this than other times. But it’s not fun and it’s not easy when you care as deeply as we care.”
BIG GAME JAMES
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
A telling stat about Franklin and Penn State’s big-game failures is that the team has lost each of the four highest-attended games in Beaver Stadium history, with the Oregon game being the most recent one.
When Penn State plays America’s best teams, it almost always loses.
“We have lost to really good teams,” Franklin said. “We’ve lost to really, really good teams, and I take that very hard and I take that very personal because I know how important it is to so many different people. I always start with myself and the things that I can control. That’s why I take things so personal. That’s why I take things so hard, and whenever you do that, you have to be careful. You try to tune out all the noise that you possibly can, which is difficult in today’s day and age, and I try to insulate the players as much as I possibly can.”
James Franklin went on to say that Penn State’s sports information department shows him some of the ways that coaches handle things when asked pressing questions.
“I think that perspective is good,” he said. “Some of the way these things are handled at other places, I don’t think would go over very well here. If I got up in a press conference and said some things that I’ve seen other people say, I don’t think that would go over very well. So I try to be as respectful as I can. I try to answer the tough questions that you guys give. It’s not always easy to do. I wouldn’t say I enjoy this whatsoever. But I also understand you guys have a job to do, and these tough questions are going to come.”
No. 7 Penn State takes on UCLA in Pasadena Saturday at 3:30 on CBS.
UCLA is 0-4 and one of the worst Power 4 teams in the country. So they should probably win this one.
