Franklin emphasizes the power of relationships in championship culture
Franklin said one of the biggest things separating Penn State right now is how intentional the program is about building real connections, not just between coaches and players, but among players themselves. He wasn't talking about buzzwords or coach-speak. He was speaking from experience.
That approach might sound simple, but it's not always the standard. In college football, it's easy to get caught up in scheme and recruiting, and NIL drama. But what Franklin's preaching is something deeper. It's about trust. It's about being able to challenge someone because they know you care. It's about creating a locker room where accountability is expected — not just from the coaches, but from the players themselves.
He even mentioned how the team uses relationship-building exercises outside of football such as dinners, workshops, and small group check-ins. All of it is designed to make sure players don't just know each other's jersey numbers. They know each other's stories.
And it shows. Franklin believes the teams that are willing to have hard conversations, check their egos, and support each other off the field are the ones that win on it.
He also explained that having this kind of culture helps in every part of the program — from retaining players in the portal era to managing adversity during the season. When guys feel seen and valued, they stay. When they feel like they're part of a real family, they buy in when it gets hard.
Franklin said culture has always been a buzzword in sports, but without relationships, it's just a fancy way of saying nothing.
For Penn State to reach its goals in 2025 to win a Big Ten title, to make a real College Football Playoff run, talent will matter. Coaching will matter. But Franklin's betting that the foundation of trust and connection they've built in that locker room will matter even more.
And he just might be right.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
35 minutes ago
- Fox News
SMU coach calls ESPN rankings system 'rigged' after latest Football Power Index update
SMU head football coach Rhett Lashlee is doubling down on his belief that ESPN favorites certain conferences with their rankings. ESPN released its first Football Power Index rankings in June. The Mustangs came out as No. 20 among college football teams entering the 2025 season, though ACC teams like Miami (No. 9) and Clemson (No. 11) were higher on the list. The Football Power Index is a "measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season." Now, ESPN updated those rankings on Friday, and the Mustangs, coming off a surprise College Football Playoff trip after going 11-3 last season, only moved up one spot to No. 19. Miami and Clemson, though, took a tumble to No. 17 and No. 16 respectively. This led Lashlee to call ESPN's ranking system a farce. "Because the whole thing is rigged," he wrote on X. Lashlee was also vocal during last season, where he questioned his belief that the ACC and the Big 12 were disrespected compared to the Big Ten and the SEC, calling the latter "top-heavy." "There's other leagues that claim depth," Lashlee said, per the New York Post. "The SEC has had the same six schools win the championship since 1964. Same six. Not a single one has been different since 1964. That's top-heavy to me. That's not depth." Lashlee clearly doesn't just believe in his Mustangs to have more success heading into 2025, but he wants some more respect for the schools he'll be going up against. Clemson, led by veteran head coach Dabo Swinney, was the school that beat SMU during the 2024 ACC Championship, 34-31, though Lashlee's group was the favorite in the tilt at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Lashlee's quest to lead his Mustangs to more success in 2025 begins with their first game against East Texas A&M on Aug. 30.
Boston Globe
36 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
College football's new era: Big money, same old powerhouses line up as the favorites
The first includes college football's biggest brands, which are dominating the list of favorites once again: No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 4 Clemson. Advertisement Second are teams we've talked about over the past few decades that are using money and celebrity coaches to elbow their way into the conversation: Colorado, North Carolina, and No. 23 Texas Tech. And then there are those who see the second year of the 12-team playoff and a different playing field created by revenue sharing and think they might be able to fashion a turnaround not unlike No. 20 Indiana's worst to (almost) first resurgence last year: Pick a name, any name, but a good starting point might be UCLA (now with star QB Nico Iamaleava ) or Virginia (which, like Indiana last year, avoids pretty much every top team on its conference schedule). Advertisement Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who helped broker the 'It's a big change,' Kessler said. 'But I think the system will adapt and the better-managed athletic departments will do well, as they always do. And athletic departments that are poorly managed won't do so well, and probably didn't do so well in the old system, either.' Heisman watch equals title watch Pay or no pay, one thing hasn't changed in college football or any sport: Great players win games. It's no big surprise, then, to see Texas at the top of almost everyone's watch list. Leading the Longhorns is none other than Arch Manning, the sophomore quarterback with the reported $6 million-plus NIL deal, and the latest burgeoning star in a family that has produced lots of them, from Archie to Peyton to Eli. 'For Arch, he grew up in this era of seeing high-level football,' Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. 'He's watched Super Bowls. He's watched gold jackets getting put on. He's been to playoff games. He's been recruited at the highest level as the No. 1 player in the country.' Texas quarterback Arch Manning is among the favorites for the Heisman Trophy. Tim Warner/Getty Though it doesn't always work out, there are plenty of schools where a player with hopes of winning the Heisman Trophy also will have a legitimate chance to win the CFP. Besides Manning, other favorites include receiver Jeremiah Smith, whose success with defending champion Ohio State figures to depend a lot on whether the Buckeyes' next quarterback, Julian Sayin, who is also in the Heisman mix, is as good as advertised. Advertisement Clemson QB Cade Klubnik is among the favorites, as are the Tigers for a repeat title in the ACC. Quarterback Drew Allar is in his fourth season at Penn State, where the Nittany Lions are expected to face Ohio State for the Big Ten title (They play Nov. 1, and coach James Franklin is 1-10 against the Buckeyes). Meanwhile, LSU appears to be only a secondary threat to Texas as Georgia and Alabama are in the SEC, but Garrett Nussmeier is in that Heisman mix and can stay there with a good performance against Klubnik and Clemson on Aug. 30. Is the hype machine same as the win machine? Nobody has defined this new era of NIL as much as Colorado coach Deion Sanders. Sanders brought his unapologetic swagger to a program that had been in the dumps for decades. He made the Buffaloes relevant, producing TV ratings, celebrity sightings, a Heisman winner in Travis Hunter, and maybe the most talked-about player in the sport in his own son, Shedeur, whose Winning? That was another thing. Deion Sanders is 13-12 over his two seasons, and now that Hunter and Shedeur are gone, the only big expectations for CU are coming from Boulder. 'The next phase is we're going to win differently, but we're going to win,' Sanders said. Another celebrity coach, Bill Belichick, will start answering the question of whether fans and wins will Advertisement The 73-year-old coach said he was building an NFL-style program — meaning everything he does, from nutrition to training to, yes, contracts, will look more like the pros. It was the sort of notion that used to be spoken softly but can now be used as a selling point. 'Everything we do here is predicated on building a pro team,' said Carolina's new general manager, Mike Lombardi, who worked with Belichick in the pros. 'We consider ourselves the 33rd [NFL] team because everybody who's involved with our program has had some form or aspect in pro football.' Over in Lubbock, Texas, the Texas Tech athletic program has never been afraid to swing big. The program that gave us swashbuckling coach Mike Leach and Super Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes is being bankrolled by the billionaire head of its board of regents, Cody Campbell, who now has the school's football field named after him. Texas Tech has made a series of high-profile and expensive player signings — some for high schoolers who haven't arrived yet — and is estimated to be spending more on NIL than any program in the country besides Texas. 'I know there's a lot of expectations on this team,' said coach Joey McGuire, who is coming off an 8-5 season. 'We look at it as opportunities.' Do new payrolls mean even footing for everyone? The new world of revenue sharing and an expanded playoff does give more reason for hope across the country. When searching for blueprints of how that can work, most long-suffering programs will look to Indiana. The Hoosiers were an also-ran for decades, with one Rose Bowl appearance ever and one winning record in a non-COVID-19 season since 1995. Then coach Curt Cignetti arrived, brought 54 new players from the transfer portal and turned Indiana into a winner overnight. Advertisement It was a remarkable turnaround that ran counter to the realities seen in these stats: ⋅ There are 70 teams that make up the Power Four conferences, plus Pac-12 leftovers Oregon State and Washington State. ⋅ Since 2000, 36 of those teams have captured a total of 137 outright or shared league titles that have been won between the five largest conferences. ⋅ Of those 137 titles, 92 (67 percent) have been captured by 10 programs that have won five or more. The other 26 have combined to win 45. ⋅ That leaves 34 programs (48.5 percent) that haven't won any. In the NFL over the same period, only 10 teams (31 percent) have failed to reach the Super Bowl. Those numbers reflect how hard it is to break through in big-time college football but also the size of the glass ceiling that could be shattered in this new era of college sports. 'I think the rev-share world definitely has a chance to bring things to a more balanced circumstance,' said Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinksi, whose football program has a new coach, Barry Odom, after going 1-11 last season. 'Will there always be some programs that operate in a little bit of a different reality? Of course. But we're not concerned about that, nor are we crying in our beer about that. We've just got to find a way.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Former Oregon star earns exciting praise from Broncos' Sean Payton
Former Oregon star earns exciting praise from Broncos' Sean Payton originally appeared on The Sporting News The Denver Broncos drafted receiver Troy Franklin in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, after drafting quarterback Bo Nix in the first round. The Oregon duo lit it up in Eugene in their final two years, and now have the chance to connect once again in Denver. Although Nix led the Broncos' to their first playoff appearance since 2015 in his rookie year, Franklin didn't have quite as successful of a season. The Ducks' star had 28 catches for 263 yards and two touchdowns. But, throughout training camp this offseason, Franklin has impressed coaches and the media. The Ducks' duo could be in store for a breakout year in 2025. "It's happening, and I'm excited," Broncos' head coach Sean Payton said of Franklin's breakout (h/t Ducks Wire). "He's had a really good camp. He's confident. I've said this a bunch of times, it has to happen on the field, and you guys that have covered this team or any other team, you see it in the preseason every year. Some players begin to make some plays, and it carries over. So that's why these games are important. "Obviously, it's challenging when you're not going to play your starting group, but when you see growth like that, and every year we don't know who those players are going to be, but he played well tonight.' After catching three of his four targets for 18 yards in the Broncos' preseason opener last week against the San Francisco 49ers, Franklin broke out on Saturday night. The Broncos' second-year receiver caught four passes for 67 yards and two touchdowns in Denver's second preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals. The former Duck has made strides throughout the offseason, but he put it all together on Saturday night, and is putting himself in a position to earn increased playing time this year.
