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Court: Defendants can sue over public defenders

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Audit: Agency paid public assistance benefits to dead people

<p>James Franklin used to seek out Les Miles at SEC coaches meetings. If he could, he&#8217;d try to sit between the LSU boss and Steve Spurrier, then at South Carolina, just for the entertainment value.</p><p>&#8220;Les is a really good guy,&#8221; Franklin said Thursday on his weekly radio show. &#8220;He was very, very successful for a long time.&#8221;</p><p>That success at LSU, which included a national championship, wasn&#8217;t enough to save Miles&#8217; job, as he was fired on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a loss to Auburn dropped the Tigers to 2-2.</p><p>It was news that bothered Franklin, who decried what he called a &#8220;win at all costs&#8221; mentality across major college football.</p><p>His boss agrees with him. The Penn State coach&#8217;s own job security was reinforced by athletic director Sandy Barbour earlier in the day.</p><p>Barbour, who was in Altoona for a speaking engagement, reiterated that Franklin will not be in jeopardy regardless of what happens this season.</p><p>&#8220;James is not on any hot seat,&#8221; Barbour told the Altoona Mirror. &#8220;He&#8217;s not on the hot seat, and he&#8217;s not going to be on the hot seat in December.&#8221;</p><p>The Nittany Lions are still well behind the top tier of the Big Ten as evidenced by Saturday&#8217;s 49-10 loss at Michigan. Barbour called the game &#8220;disappointing&#8221; but preached patience as the program tries to claw back from NCAA sanctions.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s part of our reality,&#8221; Barbour said. &#8220;I know lots of folks view that as an excuse, and I don&#8217;t like to make excuses either. But that&#8217;s our reality.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin himself addressed the sentiment that Penn State should be further along in the recovery process on the field on Thursday.</p><p>&#8220;For whatever reason, there&#8217;s been a tone toward Penn State and a tone toward our staff, that (the sanctions) should not have fazed us,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;That the experiences we&#8217;ve been through, that we should be back. We&#8217;re headed there. There are signs of it.</p><p>&#8220;I take a lot of pride that any other program that had been through everything we&#8217;ve been through, they wouldn&#8217;t have survived. To be honest, it&#8217;s a testament to how special this place is. But let&#8217;s also not forget what we&#8217;ve been through.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Settling in at TE</strong></p><p>Over a 10 month-span, Ricky Rahne had three different jobs in three consecutive games. From the 2015 regular season finale to the TaxSlayer Bowl against Georgia to this year&#8217;s opener, Rahne served as Penn State&#8217;s quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.</p><p>Those first two titles now belong to Joe Moorhead as Rahne settles in working with the tight ends. It&#8217;s a move, Rahne said, that he suggested himself when Moorhead was hired in January.</p><p>Rahne played quarterback himself in college at Cornell but said his two years as a tight ends coach at Kansas State stood out to him.</p><p>&#8220;To be real honest, I love it. I loved it when I was there and I like it now,&#8221; Rahne said Thursday. &#8220;When coach Moorhead got the job, I kind of brought it up that I not only could, but that I wanted to do it.</p><p>&#8220;Like tight ends, you&#8217;re able to be in every aspect of the game. The run game, the pass protection, the routes &#8211; you&#8217;re able to coach physicality and get excited. When you&#8217;re coaching quarterbacks sometimes you have to be a little bit more muted in terms of emotion and things like that. I played the game with a lot of passion and I prefer to coach it that way too.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s not to say things have been easy for him so far this season. Whereas tight end was arguably the deepest position on the roster just a few years ago, the Lions have had to use just one &#8212; starter Mike Gesicki &#8212; on all but a few snaps through four games.</p><p>Redshirt freshman Nick Bowers, the projected backup, suffered a season-ending injury in training camp, putting a dent in the Lions&#8217; depth.</p><p>At the quarter-pole of the season, Gesicki is second on the team in catches (14) and receiving yards (181).</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s just a mindset and playing with a lot of confidence,&#8221; Rahne said. &#8220;He&#8217;d always been confident in his athletic ability and things like that and he has always worked really hard. Now he&#8217;s able to go out there and know &#8216;I&#8217;ve earned this and I&#8217;ve earned my opportunity to go out there and make plays, and when the ball is coming my way, I&#8217;ve earned the right to be open.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s just a lot of confidence that he has, not only in himself but in the hard work that he has put in. I think that right now is the main difference.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State coach James Franklin won&#8217;t have to worry about his job this season, athletic director Sandy Barbour said Thursday in Altoona. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_franklin-clap.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State coach James Franklin won&#8217;t have to worry about his job this season, athletic director Sandy Barbour said Thursday in Altoona. </caption0><photoCredit0>Chris Knight | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Minnesota at Penn State</p><p>3:30 p.m. Saturday, BTN</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

James Franklin lands support in rocky NCAA landscape