Penn State's offseason reflects challenge of sustaining success taken in Philadelphia

James Franklin and running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider. - AUDREY SNYDER / DKPS

PHILADELPHIA – Coming off back-to-back 11-win seasons, James Franklin’s message about Penn State football has remained as consistent as ever.

“App State, I think, is our first opponent and I’m focused on App State,” Franklin said Wednesday night ahead of the Coaches Caravan stop in Philadelphia. His one-game-at-a-time mantra was as present as ever, even in May. “What the fans and what the media think and talk about is great, but I just, we don’t think like that.”

Winning football games helps Penn State both in terms of financial success – where Beaver Stadium continues to buck the national trend as attendance dips in stadiums around the country – and also on the recruiting trail. It’s no secret that Penn State’s highly-touted 2018 signing class coincides with the team coming off a Fiesta Bowl victory and producing six 2018 NFL draft picks.

Where winning hurts Penn State – and yes, as crazy as that sounds there certainly is a drawback that top teams in the country deal with – is with retaining the coaching staff, just ask Nick Saban at Alabama.

Franklin stressed since Day 1 the one thing he couldn’t have assistant coaches do is leave for lateral moves. Penn State was able to hold onto Bob Shoop for one season, after he flirted with departing, before he ultimately went to Tennessee and now Mississippi State. Brent Pry’s name has come up every season he’s been here as a potential head coaching hire, but every offseason Penn State has found a way to promote and retain him. Sean Spencer was a hot coaching commodity too, but received a promotion this offseason that helped him stay put.

Joe Moorhead, Charles Huff and Josh Gattis left this past winter, creating the biggest staff turnover in Franklin's tenure at Penn State. While the head coach won’t keep assistants from taking the next steps in their careers, there’s still the reality that everyone can’t and won’t be retained. That’s part of Penn State’s new reality, and while it’s a compliment to Franklin that other teams want his coaches, it’s also a challenge for him to work through.

“Guys leaving for promotions, Coach Moorhead going to Mississippi State, awesome,” Franklin said. “I want that for him and I want that for his family, and he’s gonna do a great job. What we’ve gotta make sure we do is that we're not losing assistants for lateral moves, and if they’re leaving to become coordinators or leaving to become head coaches then that’s wonderful, but at a top-10 program like we are now, we shouldn’t be losing to programs for lateral moves.”

Keeping the nucleus of the staff intact will be a challenge every offseason and so, too, is making sure these players — many of whom experienced being part of a Big Ten championship team and a Fiesta Bowl team last season — understand that not every year is going to be as smooth sailing as the past two.

Just like Penn State had to learn how to win and how to get comfortable with winning, it also has to learn what needs to be done to try and close the gap between the teams at the top. The margin for error is so slim among the top teams in the country that Franklin will continue searching for an advantage wherever Penn State can find one.

"It’s not just good enough to work hard," he said. "The programs we’re all competing against are all working hard, so how are we going to differentiate ourselves? Are we working harder? Are we working smarter? Are we working longer? What are we doing to differentiate ourselves?"

Making sure players don’t get complacent despite experiencing success early in their careers is part of this new challenge for Franklin and his staff. For a head coach who consistently studies best practices and program philosophies, putting the last two seasons in perspective and making sure they’re not taken for granted is all part of the challenge that comes with double-digit wins, New Year’s Six Bowl games and unprecedented success on the recruiting trail.

Devising a game plan for sustaining success is all part of this offseason, too.

“In the car driving I already sent some notes with some people, so when we go on our staff retreat [it's] things that we’re going to have some discussions [about],” he said. “It kind of hit me the other day I was reading something that Jason Cabinda was quoted on ... and Jason Cabinda and Mike Gesicki and those guys, those guys have been through a lot of adversity as a program, a lot of adversity individually. They had to overcome stuff, they had to work through things.

“We have to be careful when you have a couple of seasons in a row, you’re going to have a portion of your team that maybe hasn’t been through that adversity,” he continued. “[We have to] make sure that our team is mature enough to handle that and don’t feel like winning is just a birthright at Penn State, because it’s not.”

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