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Michigan recount over; Pennsylvania sets hearing

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NCAA boss Mark Emmert ‘pleased’ to see Penn State football’s revival

<p>Harry Hamilton had shown up at James Franklin&#8217;s office on a whim, his sons in tow. The former Penn State and Nanticoke football standout had come to meet the Nittany Lions coach early on in his tenure.</p><p>&#8220;He said, &#8216;Give me a minute to finish what I&#8217;m doing,&#8217;&#8221; Hamilton said. &#8220;Then he invited me in &#8212; a guy who showed up unannounced and uninvited &#8212; and said, &#8216;You are someone who helped build this program. I want to take a moment to meet you and your sons.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>A small gesture, perhaps. But one that resonated with Hamilton, who wasn&#8217;t interested in listening to the midseason grumbling about Franklin&#8217;s record at Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;I was not going to reconsider a man and a coach by what he does to build a football program,&#8221; said Hamilton, who won a national title at Penn State in 1982. &#8220;Nor am I going to engage in a discussion that focuses on the ridiculousness of only naming a coach based on his wins and losses.</p><p>&#8220;We have lost sight of some very human qualities. I don&#8217;t believe wins and losses define coach Franklin. That&#8217;s short-sighted. And I won&#8217;t do it.&#8221;</p><p>Hamilton is very much a Joe Paterno advocate, crediting the late coach for building a foundation that survived the NCAA sanctions that rocked the program four years ago. But he and other Penn State lettermen from Northeastern Pennsylvania like what they&#8217;ve seen from the man who&#8217;s leading the Lions now.</p><p>Hamilton, Todd Moules (Meyers), Paul Jefferson (GAR) and Keith Olsommer (North Pocono) all spoke highly of the job Franklin has done this season, even before the Lions had won the Big Ten championship on Saturday to reach the Rose Bowl.</p><p>Franklin added to his accolades on Wednesday when The Sporting News named him national coach of the year after an 11-2 season that was highlighted by nine straight wins that lifted the Lions to No. 5 in the country, one spot out of the College Football Playoff.</p><p>But at the end of September, the Lions were 2-2 after a 49-10 loss at Michigan. Penn State trailed Minnesota 13-3 at halftime of the next game and there were plenty of boos coming from the Beaver Stadium crowd.</p><p>&#8220;I kind of felt, I thought coach Franklin needed to get a signature win,&#8221; said Olsommer, a tight end on Penn State&#8217;s undefeated 1994 squad who is now the head coach at Delaware Valley High School. &#8220;I believe all coach Franklin needed was a signature win to get people off his back.&#8221;</p><p>That came just three weeks after that dreary Minnesota game, which Penn State rallied to win in overtime. The Lions shocked No. 2 Ohio State 24-21, fueling their run to the Rose Bowl.</p><p>&#8220;Being a guy who coaches young men now, confidence is a wonderful tool,&#8221; Olsommer said. &#8220;When those guys beat Ohio State, it just looked like a different group of kids playing out there every week. Excitement was higher, the speed was better. Everything just looked to be a little bit better. I think that happens when you have confidence.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to give coach Franklin a lot of credit. He&#8217;s been able to steady the ship &#8212; a ship that was on pretty rough waters after four weeks of the season.&#8221;</p><p>Before that, too. Several lettermen &#8212; prominent ones, too, like 1982 national-title-winning quarterback Todd Blackledge &#8212; voiced displeasure publicly after Penn State closed out the 2015 season with a 55-16 loss to Michigan State, a game that was capped off by the Spartans lining up their senior center in the backfield so he could run for a touchdown.</p><p>Moules, who was a teammate on that &#8216;82 squad with Blackledge and Hamilton, tried to stay patient.</p><p>&#8220;Given that I played &#8212; and I know you used to hear a lot of things outside the locker room that weren&#8217;t really what was happening inside the locker room &#8212; I didn&#8217;t really get involved with that,&#8221; Moules said. &#8220;Because I knew, as a fan, you&#8217;re so far removed from what was happening in the locker room.</p><p>&#8220;I always said Franklin took over for (former coach) Bill O&#8217;Brien and had a lot of kids from Bill O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s recruits and Joe&#8217;s. I said you&#8217;ve got to give they guy a chance to get his system in, and his kids in. It was way too soon for some of the (negative) talk in the media and impatient alumni.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin acknowledged this past week that he had heard the calls for his job from Penn State fans and pundits alike over the past few years.</p><p>When asked before the Big Ten title game if he felt any vindication for getting through that rough stretch, Franklin remained pragmatic.</p><p>&#8220;No, I&#8217;d like to talk about the team,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to not talk about past negativity. Because it&#8217;ll come back. It&#8217;ll be back again at some point.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s a truth that all coaches face.</p><p>Take Jefferson, who has coached locally as an assistant at Wilkes and GAR in recent years.</p><p>&#8220;If you&#8217;ve ever coached, you keep a coach&#8217;s perspective,&#8221; said Jefferson, who was the fullback for Larry Johnson&#8217;s 2,000-yard rushing season in 2002. &#8220;I was looking at it, it&#8217;s a competitive league, but you really don&#8217;t have a long time to start winning. Penn State&#8217;s always been a special place. They&#8217;re focused on the student as well as the athlete.</p><p>&#8220;And before they hired coach Franklin, they realized they had a special guy because he had a plan.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Former Penn State fullback Paul Jefferson, a GAR grad, has followed the work done by Lions coaches Bill O&#8217;Brien and James Franklin in rebuilding the program. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_jefferson-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Former Penn State fullback Paul Jefferson, a GAR grad, has followed the work done by Lions coaches Bill O&#8217;Brien and James Franklin in rebuilding the program. </caption0><photoCredit0>Jim Mone | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_olsommer-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Now a coach himself in the region, former Penn State tight end Keith Olsommer saw the confidence of James Franklin&#8217;s team spike after beating Ohio State. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_olsommer-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Now a coach himself in the region, former Penn State tight end Keith Olsommer saw the confidence of James Franklin&#8217;s team spike after beating Ohio State. </caption1><photoCredit1>Craig Houtz | AP file photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_franklin2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s James Franklin was named national coach of the year by The Sporting News on Wednesday, the latest accolade in a turnaround season that has impressed former Nittany Lions. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_franklin2.jpg</photo2><caption2>Penn State&#8217;s James Franklin was named national coach of the year by The Sporting News on Wednesday, the latest accolade in a turnaround season that has impressed former Nittany Lions. </caption2><photoCredit2>Craig Houtz | AP file photo </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse and Paul Sokoloski</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> WoSyLRwlhz4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSyLRwlhz4</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Penn State Athletics</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

James Franklin earns support from NEPA’s Penn State lettermen