James Franklin and Penn State football have had to hire three new coordinators this season, and the Nittany Lions aren't the only team that is dealing with offseason changes. College sports are changing dramatically, and we are seeing a lot of interesting moves because of it. There are a lot of transfers, and a lot of coaches leaving for the same position or even a worse position. Franklin was asked about these changes at Penn State and in college football as a whole, and he didn't hold back when discussing the current state of college football.
“I do think the big 10 and the SEC commissioners taking a leadership role in this is really important because it's not headed in a good direction really for anybody,” Penn State football coach James Franklin said, according to a tweet from Allie Berube. “I don't think it's the right thing for players. I think you guys have heard me speak on this before. I think when coaches went too far, and we're limiting where players could transfer to they were abusing that we went from one extreme to the other. You can't tell me that it's good for the student athletes to transfer three, four times. Every time you transfer, the likelihood of graduating goes down. I don't think that's in anybody's best interest.”
Franklin has that concern for the players, and he has also seen some things that aren't good for the coaches. The game is changing, and a lot of coaches are leaving for the NFL because of it.
“I think what you're seeing is my biggest concern is you're having people leave college football that would have never left college football because a lot of the head coaching positions, coordinator positions and assistant coaching positions, it's gotten further and further away from what they signed up for,” Franklin continued. “Everybody knew you had to recruit to coach them. There was a balance between those two but all these other things are taking you further and further away from coaching and developing kids. And development is like a word that isn't even used anymore. You know, it's like I told the players when they showed up on campus and their parents you came here because we want to develop you. But if you decide to jump in the transfer portal a year from now then you don't give us the time to develop you.”
There is a reason that James Franklin came to coach the Penn State football team. He wants to develop players, and he wants to set them up for long term success both in football and life in general. He now fears that coaches aren't in the game for the right reasons.
“I think college football started to attract people into the industry for the wrong reasons,” Franklin added. “And maybe I'm old school, but I still truly believe that if you're coaching college football, you should be coaching it because you care about the kids and their total development academically, athletically, socially, spiritually, the whole package. And I think because of the changes, people were getting into college football for things that didn't align with that. So we've been on a slippery slope for a while. And the reality is, the college football that we've all known, the college athletics that we've all known, that that's not coming back, and you're gonna have to embrace the current model that we're in.”
College athletics are changing dramatically and they're changing fast, there's no question about it. There are some concerns, but Franklin also believes that it can still get better with the change.
“That doesn't mean that we can't make it better and can't still get back to something that I think is in the student athletes, best interest long term as well as still be able to complement what's happening on in a university setting, which I think has also been something that's been very, very important for a long time,” Franklin said. “But there's going to have to be some tough decisions that are made from people that are in a position of power to get those things done. If not, you're going to continue to see coaches leaving college football and you're going to continue to see student athletes transferring three and four times.”
James Franklin spoke for about five minutes on this topic during his Penn State football press conference. This is clearly something that is very important to him, and he cares a lot about the future of college football.
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