Josh Moyer, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

James Franklin to face familiar opponent

James Franklin waited years for the opportunity. When the news conference finally came, he was all smiles. He sat next to the athletic director, intimated he’d spend his entire career there – and even added that he’d “always dreamed” of this.

But on that chilly day, Feb. 6, 2009, he donned a red tie instead of a blue one. And he was referring to Maryland, not Penn State.

On that Friday, the longtime Maryland assistant coach was named the Terrapins’ head coach in waiting. The boy who spent his Thanksgivings near College Park, whose aunt worked for admissions, was supposed to take over for Ralph Friedgen by the 2012 season. He was supposed to be the young coach to continue Maryland’s transformation. And with the Terps traveling to Penn State for their first meeting since 1993, Franklin at one time was supposed to be on the opposite sideline.

“Things happen for a reason,” Franklin said Wednesday evening, from the Penn State practice fields. “And I’m blessed and fortunate to be here.”

Before Franklin referred to himself as the “Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart,” he embraced his time at a campus 200 miles south of Happy Valley. He carved out a reputation as a top-notch recruiter even then, helping snag current Maryland defensive end Andre Monroe and quarterback C.J. Brown. He was as an assistant coach there from 2000 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2010.

“He’s still a great guy,” Brown told the media Tuesday. “I have a lot of respect for him.”

Franklin was nearly Brown’s head coach instead of Christian Hackenberg’s. Maryland extended the coach-in-waiting offer after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came calling about an offensive coordinator position. A clause in his Maryland contract guaranteed him $1 million if Friedgen hadn’t retired after the 2011 season.

If then-athletic director Debbie Yow remained in her position, that might have come to fruition. She clearly thought highly of Franklin.

“What I saw in James was a relentless work ethic and hunger to excel,” Yow said earlier this week.

Yow left Maryland 16 months after that news conference, when she and Franklin excitedly announced the deal. She had decided to return home to become athletic director at North Carolina State, which was just an hour’s drive from her childhood home.

That changed everything. When Yow left, it seemed as if Franklin’s deal to become the next head coach left along with her. Current athletic director Kevin Anderson signed on in September 2010 and, about a month into his new job, he told The Baltimore Sun he wasn’t a fan of such “successor” agreements: “I can’t see how this serves the program well,” he said at the time.

Yow declined to speculate whether Franklin would have become head coach had she stayed. Through a spokesman, Anderson declined to comment on the decision-making process.

Without a guarantee, Franklin decided to leave to become the head coach at Vanderbilt in December 2010 and led the Commodores to three straight bowl games, reviving a dormant SEC program. He was hired by Penn State in January. Meanwhile, Anderson fired Friedgen after the 2010 season and hired former UConn coach Randy Edsall. The Terps had losing seasons in 2011 and 2012 before making the Military Bowl last year.

After practice Wednesday, Franklin didn’t seem eager to relive his past. He said he appreciated his time in in Maryland, along with the recruiting relationships he built, but declined to get into the what-ifs and the maybes of his career.

“It’s awesome to be at Penn State,” he said.

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