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Polar Express celebration at St. Jude’s

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<p>Safe to say James Franklin hasn&#8217;t entered an offseason like this one.</p><p>Before each of his three years at Vanderbilt and his first three at Penn State, the coach could play the underdog card with his players and the public.</p><p>Not anymore.</p><p>The Nittany Lions&#8217; stunning Big Ten championship win and near-miss with the College Football Playoff has them already projected for a top-10 preseason ranking in 2017.</p><p>&#8220;Are we going to be as driven?&#8221; Franklin said Saturday during his first press conference since the Rose Bowl. &#8220;Are we going to be as motivated as we were this year? That&#8217;s going to be the secret. Are we going to work as hard for our chemistry? Are we going to be able to work as hard for our culture? Are we going to be able to work as hard collectively and individually to get where we want to be?&#8221;</p><p>Motivation hasn&#8217;t been an issue for Franklin, who has been out on the road recruiting with his staff for the majority of the month.</p><p>He&#8217;s heard plenty of praise while on the trail, particularly about the highly entertaining matchup with USC.</p><p>But&#8230;</p><p>&#8220;I got everybody coming up to me saying, &#8216;Wow, Coach. Best bowl game I&#8217;ve ever seen. Unbelievable,&#8217;&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I said it wasn&#8217;t that darned good, you know. I understand from an entertainment standpoint it was awesome, but we didn&#8217;t win the game.</p><p>&#8220;We have things that we should be very proud of. And for our guys, they should be confidence-building experiences. But we also have things that I think should be motivating. The way I look at it, there&#8217;s one happy team at the end of the year, and that&#8217;s (national champion) Clemson and my boy (coach Dabo Swinney).</p><p>&#8220;Everybody else is salty and angry and ready to get back to work again.&#8221;</p><p>While the Lions return the bulk of their roster in 2017, there are still more changes likely to come by the end of the spring semester.</p><p>Franklin said he expects his 2017 recruiting class &#8212; which will officially sign Feb. 1 &#8212; to finish off at &#8220;20 or 21 guys.&#8221; The Lions have four freshmen already enrolled and have verbal commitments from 15 more, the bulk of whom are on campus this weekend taking their official visits.</p><p>With perhaps two more spots open, signing that many players means that some other scholarship players won&#8217;t be coming back for next season. Already defensive tackle Antoine White has announced he will be transferring to FCS Albany.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, there&#8217;s ongoing discussions with a number of guys,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We&#8217;re probably in conversation with about seven different (scholarship) guys in our program, and we&#8217;re trying to anticipate who we think is going to come out based off of all the information that we have and what&#8217;s going to come back.&#8221;</p><p>Franklin had initially thought he might have more holes to fill back in December, when he said seven players had looked into leaving early for the NFL. In the end, two of them &#8212; wideout Chris Godwin and defensive end Garrett Sickels &#8212; made the jump, but Franklin said he was prepared to lose four, with tight end Mike Gesicki and safety Marcus Allen other top candidates.</p><p>In other roster news, Franklin said he fully expects receiver DaeSean Hamilton to be back for his fifth season and that kicker Tyler Davis had already been put on scholarship.</p><p><strong>Looking back</strong></p><p>Sunday will mark five years since the death of Joe Paterno and Franklin was asked about the late coach&#8217;s legacy.</p><p>Franklin mentioned that there were former Paterno in players town this weekend &#8212; Chris Thorpe, who lettered for the Lions in 1988, is the father of 2017 Penn State recruit C.J. Thorpe.</p><p>&#8220;To me that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s about,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not about the wins and the losses, it&#8217;s about how many people did you have a positive impact on, and all the players that came through here he was able to have a positive impact on.</p><p>&#8220;I think that&#8217;s really his legacy &#8212; the individual conversations that I&#8217;ve had with former players that feel very, very strongly about the impact that he had on his life and his teammates. That&#8217;s what I can speak on.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State coach James Franklin and quarterback Trace McSorley took in a hockey game this weekend with the Big Ten trophy in tow. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/web1_jf-hockey2017121144925127-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State coach James Franklin and quarterback Trace McSorley took in a hockey game this weekend with the Big Ten trophy in tow. </caption0><photoCredit0>Abby Drey | AP photo, Centre Daily Times </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘Ready to get back to work:’ Penn State has new perspective for 2017