Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

HAZLETON — Now it can be told.

Since leading Penn State’s Nittany Lions to the Big Ten football championship and a Rose Bowl Berth, the team’s energetic football coach James Franklin has been helping other teams around the school.

Most notably, with words — and actions — a little out of the ordinary that seemingly helped harvest a couple of wins.

Seemingly, a season of wild success on the football field has tickled Franklin’s wild side.

And his fellow Penn State peers were only too gleeful to dime him out Tuesday, when the school’s Coaches Caravan stopped at the Penn State Hazleton campus.

“Coach Franklin’s crazy,” insisted Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington.

Her NCAA Tournament team discovered that this past winter, when Washington invited Franklin to deliver a pregame pep talk to the group prior to an important, late-season victory over Purdue.

“James comes in, plops down in the chair,” Washington said. “He asks, ‘What do you want me to say?’ I said, ‘Just say anything.’ “

That was mistake number one. Or was it?

“So he says to them, ‘Look, I’m going to talk to you like I talk to my players.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, God, what is this man going to say to my team?’ ” Washington laughed. “So he talks about values and a couple of other things, and at the end, he asked who we were playing that night and the team told him Purdue. And he’s like, ‘Purdue? I hate Purdue and their ugly, freakin’ uniforms!”

The words resonated with at least one person in the room.

Late in that game, with Penn State nursing a two-point lead, Washington called a timeout.

“We needed to win this game to get a good seed in the NCAA Tournament,” Washington said. “And the only thing I’m thinking, the only thing I told the team, was, ‘Let’s close this thing out.’

“Because we hate Purdue and their ugly, freakin’ uniforms.”

It seems that’s the type of passion Franklin inspires, no matter what he’s saying — or wearing.

Penn State men’s gymnastics coach Randy Jepson brought up that famous — or is it infamous? — story, magnified through YouTube, about Franklin and his football coaching staff trying to fire up the school’s wrestling team by donning wrestling singlets before a big dual meet.

“You know what? We won,” Jepson said of the wrestlers. “So James, next year I’m sending over the form-fitting pants (worn in gymnastics).”

Uh, about that viral video of the football coaches’ wrestling poses…

“If you look that up, don’t expand the picture,” Franklin pleaded. “It’s one of those things that’s good from far, but far from good.”

Yet, all this good will is simply the harvest from a very good season.

With a Big Ten title and Penn State’s first Rose Bowl berth since 2009, before the Sandusky sanctions hit the school, Franklin has become a model which other Nittany Lions sports surely follow.

“It was a great thing for us to watch the football team,” Washington said. “It gave us hope, that you can start off struggling a little bit, but if you stay the course, great things can happen.”

Even the golfers got the message.

Penn State women’s golf coach Denise St. Pierre brought up Franklin’s introductory press conference from three years ago, when he talked of a plan to land the best college prospects from one end of Pennsylvania to the other.

“I listened to James say we’re going to dominate the state. I did the same thing,” said St. Pierre, rattling off a list of at least seven golf recruits from Pennsylvania.

Of course, Franklin’s far from finished.

With Lake-Lehman grad Connor McGovern shifting from guard to center for his sophomore season, star receiver Chris Godwin gone to the NFL and some holes on the defense to patch, Franklin and the Lions have a lot of work to do to live up to a likely top-10 preseason ranking.

“We’re in a better place,” Franklin said, noting he senses a sigh of relief from past lettermen and the Penn State community following last season’s success. “I still think we’re looking to create more depth.”

He believes you can never start too soon toward that goal.

During Tuesday’s luncheon, Franklin pulled 12-year-old Notre Dame fan Connor Shamany to the stage and let him touch the team’s 2016 Big Ten Championship trophy.

“I’m always recruiting, and I met a new friend today,” Franklin explained. “Connor, I think, was dropped a few times as a baby — he’s a Notre Dame fan. I need everybody in this community to recruit Connor. I need you guys to bring him to games, buy him gear and get him on board with us.”

From the looks of things, it’s one wild ride.

“People ask what changed last year?” Franklin said. “This is the first year (following the sanctions from the Sandusky scandal) we worked with (the full allotment of) 85 scholarships. More than that, we owned our locker room. We had 100 percent buy-in. The players we had knew we cared for them. They trusted us. I think you saw how much fun we had playing together.

“We walked into a challenging situation,” Franklin continued. “But we stayed and we battled through it. I think we all realized there is no secret to success. It’s about hard work, attention to detail and loving one another and being excited at being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself.

“We had a certain chemistry in that locker room.”

Penn State coach James Franklin jokes with Connor Shamany for wearing a red shirt while Chaz Cartwright, Jayden Radzwich, Ethan Brennan and Ashtyn Cartwright pose for a photo.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051017PennState2.jpg.optimal.jpgPenn State coach James Franklin jokes with Connor Shamany for wearing a red shirt while Chaz Cartwright, Jayden Radzwich, Ethan Brennan and Ashtyn Cartwright pose for a photo. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

Penn State coach James Franklin signs a hat for Barbara Trainor before a luncheon on Tuesday at Penn State Hazleton.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051017PennState1.jpg.optimal.jpgPenn State coach James Franklin signs a hat for Barbara Trainor before a luncheon on Tuesday at Penn State Hazleton. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour speaks to members of the media on Tuesday afternoon during the Coaches Caravan event at Penn State Hazleton.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051017PennState3.jpg.optimal.jpgPenn State athletic director Sandy Barbour speaks to members of the media on Tuesday afternoon during the Coaches Caravan event at Penn State Hazleton. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington said that James Franklin had given a pep talk to her team before a game late in the season.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051017PennState4.jpg.optimal.jpgPenn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington said that James Franklin had given a pep talk to her team before a game late in the season. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader

After a one-year hiatus, Penn State’s Coaches Caravan hit the road this week as football coach James Franklin highlighted a stop at Penn State Hazleton on Tuesday.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051017PennState5.jpg.optimal.jpgAfter a one-year hiatus, Penn State’s Coaches Caravan hit the road this week as football coach James Franklin highlighted a stop at Penn State Hazleton on Tuesday. Aimee Dilger | Times Leader
Lions Big Ten championship coach helping other teams around Penn State

By Paul Sokoloski

[email protected]

Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski