Another great way of looking at is by Coaching Administration because it is legendary Head Coaches that establish dominant winning traditions after all, the simple "name" does not create wins - it's the Head Coach at the end of the day (Bud Wilkerson at Oklahoma, Bear Bryant at Bama, Darrell Royal at Texas, etc....). By sheer coincidence Rip Engle came to PSU in 1950 -- during Rip Engle's tenure, PSU was 104-48-4 which was #14 in the country during that tenure ('Ole Miss was #1 during the period at 128-33-9 believe it or not). PSU's next coach was of course "The Great Joseph Vincent Paterno" to use Coach Franklin's description (1965-2011). PSU was 410-139-3 during these seasons #3 in the country (UNL was #1 at 442-120-5). In other words, Coach Franklin is following two CFB Hall of Fame Coaching Selections who combined to make PSU the #3 winningest program in the country during their back-to-back tenures, 1950 - 2011, PSU was 514-187-7 (Oklahoma was #1 during this span at 541-169-12 primarily off the back of the coaching tandem of Bud Wilkerson and Barry Switzer).
In other words, Coach Franklin understands he has some big shoes to fill but he seems to be a very good "student of the game" in terms of understanding how they established those exception dominant winning traditions.....and the #1 way they created these results was by sticking to the "inputs" (results are not inputs) of core values, principles and process (those things that our uniforms have come to represent - the way football has always been played in Pennsylvania....."with integrity". You practice as hard as you can every practice.....you play as hard as you can every game, every play - "Black Shoes, Basic Blues, No Names, ALL GAME") - in other words, the other team is going to get your best effort every play to the final whistle regardless of score or anything else because that is your OBLIGATION to your "name" [e.g., your family and yourself], your teammates and the uniform you are representing [e.g., your school]. Coach Franklin understands PSU's Tradition -- Success With Honor and Integrity - Coach Franklin understands the tradition of "Pennsylvania Football" and the precepts of how it is played - he grew up in Pennsylvania and played both High School and College Football in Pennsylvania. Given his humility, ability to recruit and coach, I think he has learned the lessons well of what coaches like Joe Paterno and Rip Engle could teach him and has the potential to do great things at PSU. I was told by a very wise and brilliant person a long, long time ago that if you don't retain your humility, and you begin to drink your own cool-aide [he was referring to arrogance, narcissism and hubris], you will not realize your ultimate potential to do great things because the key to self-improvement and 'getting better' at anything, including being a good person, is remaining humble and understanding that you can always get better if you remain humble and retain the "belief" that you can be better. In other words, it's all about "attitude" and being confident, but grateful and humble (because all of our talents were a gift - something we were given and have an obligation to realize the potential of those gifts - not something we created) which is the diametric opposite attitude of arrogance, narcissism and hubris even if the talent level is identical. "Toughness" and "Determination" to be the best we can be is the first attitude - the attitude of "true champions" - the end never justifies the means; the means [e.g., the "inputs"] are always paramount...."it's how you play, not whether you win or lose". The latter attitude above when it is practiced by talented people generally results in a "win regardless of cost" attitude....IOW, "the ends do justify the means"....cheating is okay as long as it results in "winning" or what I perceive to be in my self-interest's "winning". As I've said before, the "culture problem" at PSU never resided within the Football Program, it resides with zero-integrity, moral-hypocrites that took up residence in the "Executive Committee of the Board of Thieves, Liars, Charlatans and Whores".
