Dom DeLuca didn’t know what he was going to do.
The fifth-year Penn State linebacker and three-time captain had just played in the PIAA championship for Wyoming Area High School.
That day turned into both a dream and a nightmare for DeLuca.
It started as a dream, with DeLuca being able to play in the state championship, which is a goal for any college athlete.
It became a nightmare when, early in the third quarter, DeLuca tore his ACL.
What happened next was pure Hollywood.
DeLuca missed one play, then– playing quarterback– led his team from 14-0 down by throwing three touchdown passes.
But amid the euphoria, DeLuca realized the long-term damage of what had just happened.
He had committed to Penn State as a preferred walk-on in March, and the night of the injury, he reached out to James Franklin.
“I called him crying,” DeLuca told reporters via Zoom Tuesday. (Didn’t know) What I was going to do.”
“Was I gonna go into the military? Was I going to go to JUCO? Was I going to go to trade school? I had no idea. He pretty much told me he had a plan for me and was able to settle me down, get my head straight and be able to tell me what we’re going to do and how we’re going to go about it.”
Franklin calmed DeLuca down and told him he had a plan, and DeLuca made it to Penn State after all.
After cutting his teeth on special teams as a walk-on– which Franklin told DeLuca he was going to have to do– for two seasons, DeLuca got a scholarship and, since then, has been a key member of Penn State’s defense.
This past Sunday, Franklin was fired, and DeLuca opened up about what the coach means to him days later.
“Coach Franklin was one of the only coaches to believe in me,” DeLuca said, “and gave me an opportunity to play at my dream school and to chase my dreams of playing at Penn State.”
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‘HE’S A BALLER’
Franklin appreciated DeLuca, too, and DeLuca’s finest hour came in last season’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal win over SMU.
His pick-six ignited Penn State’s first Playoff win, and another pick later helped Penn State pull away.
After the game, Franklin talked extensively about the day’s big story.
“Dom is just — he’s a baller,” Franklin said in his postgame presser. “You talk about a guy who was Pennsylvania Player of the Year, won a state championship on a torn ACL, gray-shirted to be able to come here, came as a walk-on, earned a scholarship.”
“He’s got a smile on his face,” Franklin said. “He’s appreciative. He works his tail off, trusted us when we talked about the positions that we wanted to play him, and whatever role we’ve asked him to do, he’s done it 100 miles an hour.”
GOING 1-0
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Franklin will be on the minds of Penn State’s players for the rest of the season, but it still must focus on Iowa.
Going 1-0 would go a long way in keeping Franklin’s impact going.
“Coach Franklin is always going to be a big name in my family, definitely the DeLuca family,” he said. “The relationships he’s made with my parents, my siblings, my nephew, everyone in my family, he has touched. He’s just been a great role model and great person to everyone in my family. Just trying to live his legacy is going to be hard and just being able to keep on going about our day-to-day process.”
