James Franklin Reflects on the Season at Year-End Press Conference

James Franklin took time to reflect on Penn State’s 2016 football season. 

Although recruiting has been keeping him very busy this time of year, Penn State head coach James Franklin took some time to address members of the media Saturday morning who gathered inside of the media room at Beaver Stadium. Franklin shared his thoughts on Penn State’s 2016 season.

The coach began by talking about how the season ended. “I think the way the season ended, I think the Rose Bowl, how our guys handled themselves academically, how our guys handled themselves socially, you know, right now I think we’re in a position that we’re going to be able to retain most if not all of the staff, which is great,” Franklin said.

He also discussed the process some of the players went through when making decisions on the NFL Draft and mentioned that about 20 recruits and their families were currently on campus.

Below are some highlights of what Coach Franklin had to say. You can view the entire transcript on GoPSUSports.com.

On Early Rankings for Next Year:

“Last year’s success, although it factors into how people rank you for the next year, has no effect. That ranking means little to nothing. End-of-the-year rankings are what matter. I do think we had some experiences last year that are going to be motivating factors for us moving forward. Certain games where we didn’t play as well as we should have played, having conversations about whether we made — would be in the playoffs or not, being that close and not getting in is a motivator. How the bowl game ended is a motivator. So there’s things out there, and there’s only really one team that’s happy at the end of the season.”

On Getting Ready for Signing Day:

” I think you look around the country right now at some programs that are basically offering prospects that are committed to every school in the country and they’re trying to pluck them away. That’s how some people approach this time of year. And then you’re trying to finish your classes out, whether you’re trying to finish your classes out with getting kids that are uncommitted or kids that are committed to other schools. We’ve got a couple guys that are still entertaining conversations with other schools, and we’ve got to keep those guys on board with us.”

On Antoine White Transferring and Others Leaving:

“Yeah, there’s ongoing discussions with a number of guys. What I mean by that, I’m talking about the whole program, so there’s some walk-on guys that are going to decide whether they’re going to come back for their last year or going to move on for internships or student teaching and those types of things.”

“For the scholarship guys, we pretty much had anticipated — I think that’s why the first question was about the number of scholarships. I think a lot of times you guys try to kind of predict how many we’re going to sign based on what you see on the roster, but there’s conversations that are going on with parents and kids about transferring.”

On the Experience Gained by Cam Brown:

“I think in the long run, Cam Brown is going to be a much better player next year based on the experiences that he had this year, and then the other part hard that you guys know that we’ve all discussed is you end up redshirting a guy saying he’s going to be more valuable to our program and going to be a better player for himself as a fifth-year redshirt senior. But if you redshirt a guy and then he doesn’t come back for his redshirt senior year and he could have played 60 reps as a true freshman, you obviously didn’t make the right decision, because you want to be able to have guys play for four years.”

On the Impact the Rose Bowl Had on Trace McSorley:

“You guys have heard me talk about Trace [McSorley] a couple different ways. Number one, he’s a winner, and I think we’ve all seen that. He’s also a guy that doesn’t get too high and doesn’t get too low. I mean, obviously starting out the game with a couple interceptions and things like that, obviously he wasn’t happy with that, but again, there wasn’t one person on the sideline or watching the game that would say that kid’s not handling this adversity well. He handles things really well. He handles success well, and he handles challenges well.”