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James Franklin found himself living with his old college coach as he was starting up in the profession himself.
Two years after he was East Stroudsburg’s record-setting quarterback — and 20 years before he would be named Big Ten coach of the year at Penn State — he was a graduate assistant for his mentor, Denny Douds.
“I lived with Denny and his wife Judy … a month, maybe two months,” Franklin said Tuesday. “They were awesome. I remember sitting there at night, we’d go out on the back patio. We’d talk. I was kind of a young coach, trying to figure it out, what direction I wanted to go, really what I wanted to do. Talking about his background
“His positivity, his consistency, his care for people … stuck with me forever.”
It’s what Franklin has tried to base his own coaching career on as he leads the Nittany Lions into the Big Ten championship game.
A few hours later on Tuesday, it was announced that Franklin shared the Big Ten’s coaching honors for the season with the man who will be on the opposite sideline Saturday in Indianapolis.
Franklin was named the Dave McClain Big Ten Coach of the Year award as voted on by the media. Wisconsin’s Paul Chryst won the Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year award from the league’s coaches.
“I’m honored and humbled, but this is a team award. This is a staff award,” Franklin said on the Big Ten Network’s awards show. “We’ve got the best staff in the country. We’ve got the best players. I love our kids, our locker room.
“So we appreciate it. We’re humbled and honored. But it’s really about our team. We talk about all time with team success comes individual recognition, and that’s great, but it’s really about our staff.”
It’s the fifth time a Penn State coach has earned the award since joining the league in 1993. Bill O’Brien took it in 2012, following Joe Paterno’s wins in 1994, 2005 and 2008.
A handful of Franklin’s players were also honored Tuesday during the first half of the Big Ten’s awards ceremony, which featured defense and special teams.
Leading the way was junior kicker Tyler Davis, who earned a first-team All-Big Ten nod from the coaches and was a second-team pick by the media. He was edged out for the kicker of the year trophy by Minnesota’s Emmit Carpenter.
Junior defensive end Garrett Sickels was a second-team choice by the coaches and on the media’s third team.
Other third-team selections were senior defensive end Evan Schwan (coaches and media), junior safety Marcus Allen (coaches) and junior linebacker Jason Cabinda (coaches).
Allen and Cabinda were honorable-mention picks by the media along with senior linebacker Brandon Bell, freshman punter Blake Gillikin, junior defensive tackle Parker Cothren and sophomore cornerback John Reid.
Other Big Ten awards went to Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers (top defensive player, top linebacker, top return man), Ohio State’s Tyquan Lewis (top defensive lineman), Michigan’s Jourdan Lewis (top defensive back) and Ohio State’s Cameron Johnston (top punter).
At the start of the day, quarterback Trace McSorley was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after throwing setting career highs in yards (376) and touchdowns (four).
Season-long accolades on offense will be announced at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Lions stay put
As expected, Penn State remained at No. 7 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, which were released Tuesday night.
The all-important top four were Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and Washington. Michigan dropped two spots to No. 5 after losing to the Buckeyes on Saturday.
The Lions’ hopes at crashing the Playoff party rest on topping No. 6 Wisconsin on Saturday night, adding a second top-10 win to their resume. Though both the Lions and Badgers are currently behind the Wolverines, who beat both teams in the regular season, the boost from taking the Big Ten title and an 11th win could vault the league champ past Michigan.
“I think the separation there for four to seven is not a wide margin of separation,” CFP committee chairman Hocutt said. “But specifically between Washington and Michigan, it’s razor thin.”
But that likely won’t be enough to reach the top four alone. Penn State will be pulling for No. 9 Colorado to knock off Washington in Friday’s Pac-12 championship or for No. 23 Virginia Tech to upset Clemson in Saturday’s ACC title game.
