By Jeff Schuler
Of The Morning Call
January 4, 2014

His name is near the top of the candidate's list at both Penn State and Texas.

Vanderbilt coach James Franklin is also being linked to a few NFL coaching openings as well.

But the 41-year-old former East Stroudsburg University quarterback didn't allow events elsewhere distract him as he prepares his team for Saturday's BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., deflecting questions about his future by focusing on the job he currently holds and the task at hand.

"I love the Vandy fans. I love the Vandy nation. I love everything we're doing," Franklin, who has become one of the hottest young coaching prospects by making the longtime doormats competitive in the rugged Southeastern Conference, said Monday in Nashville.

"I can promise you, he is 100 percent focused on beating Houston," said Freedom graduate Mike Santella, his best friend and former college roommate. "Even with everything going on, that's his only focus right now. You can't fool kids — they'll see right through you if you're not sincere. But they see that he's focusing on the game, not anything else.

"This is what makes James special," added Santella, the Warriors' offense line coach. "He has the ability to block out everything. When he's with his family, the whole world can be collapsing around him, but at that moment he's focused on family, 100 percent. Then when he's in his office or on the field, he's focused on Vanderbilt football. Anything else gets put aside for another time."

That time will begin not long after the end of today's game. Coachingsearch.com reported Friday that Franklin will interview Sunday with Penn State. According to a report on Orangebloods.com, a web site devoted to Texas athletics, that school and Franklin have already met; Franklin declined to comment on the report Wednesday in Birmingham.

So, why is Franklin, whose current contract reportedly pays him $3 million a year, suddenly among the hottest names in college football?

He came to Vanderbilt with an impressive assistant coaching resume, which began with a year at Kutztown followed by a year at his alma mater as a grad assistant, and with a reputation as one of the country's top recruiters. All he's done in his first head coaching position is take a program that had three winning seasons since 1960 to bowl games the past three seasons, the first time that's ever happened in the program's history.

The Commodores swept Georgia, Florida and Tennessee this season. It's the first time they've ever beaten Georgia and Florida in the same season, and the win over Tennessee gave them back-to-back wins over their in-state rivals for the first time since 1925-26.

The win over Florida was also their first at Gainesville since 1945.

Santella, who talks with Franklin four or five times a week, remembers a conversation he had with a coaching friend of his from an SEC school several years before Franklin arrived at Vanderbilt.

"He told me that if [his school] lost to Vanderbilt it would be like us losing to Cheyney," said Santella, referring to East Stroudsburg's PSAC East rivals which has won five conference games since 1990.

"He's taken a program that wasn't noted for its football over the last half century, and that might be a little kind, and he has done what he's done there," said ESU coach Denny Douds, who took Franklin into his home as a boarder during his grad assistant season. "That gets you in the realm of when a job opens up, a guy like him gets noticed."

Franklin, whose co-defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Brent Pry, the son of former ESU offensive coordinator Jim Pry, has harvested top 25 recruiting classes at Maryland and, unexpectedly, at Vanderbilt. That ability to attract talent is one of his biggest assets, and Douds said Franklin could really help Penn State reassert itself in that department.

"Look at his background," Douds said. "He came from Neshaminy and played at East Stroudsburg. How many high school coaches are there in Pennsylvania with a PSAc background? 75 percent? I don't know what that stat is but I wouldn't blink at that. So he has something to relate to when he walks into a school.

"At Maryland he got an awful lot of kids out of that area, and he came up to New Jersey. He can walk into practically any place and relate to somebody. He can relate to a diverse population, which is what Penn State is."

Both Santella and Douds said "people skills" are the foundation for Franklin's success.

"If you ever meet him, it takes about 10 seconds to realize he's a special guy," Santella said. "He makes you feel as of you're the most important person in the world. He loves life, and he loves his job. Some guys say they love their job but their body language says something else. Not James. Any quality you want as a great head coach, he has.

"I\m not surprised by any of this," he said. "I knew when we were rooming together, that whatever he was going into — politics, psychology, whatever — he was going to be the best at it."

Santella said Franklin is comfortable sitting down with a prospective recruit at an intercity high school, with the country music stars that call Nashville home, or with "one of those Vanderbilt donors worth $10 million or so.

"He can relate to CEOs and the person on the street,," Douds said. "We have a person here in the community whose daughter goes to Vanderbilt, and she said when James stopped by her sorority to sell the program everyone got excited just listening to him."

Although both are coaches, Franklin and Santella didn't meet on a football field. Santella, who didn't play football at East Stroudsburg, helped out Jody Cwik at Freedom as a volunteer assistant coach during his college days. Meanwhile, Franklin, recruited by Douds out of Neshaminy, backed up Bret Comp for two years after a redshirt season, then was a two-year starter for the Warriors. As a senior he set school records for passing yards, total offense and touchdown passes and was a candidate for the 1994 Harlon Hill Trophy as the best player in Division II.

"We just kind of migrated toward each other through school and became roommates as seniors, and our friendship has really grown," Santella said. "James gives me life advice, and I'd like to think I give him life advice. And when he calls, the thing James wants to talk about is James Franklin and Vanderbilt. He asks about our players and wants to know what's up with East Stroudsburg and coach Douds."

Santella has a simple piece of advice for his friend.

"I'm going to tell him this — sit down with Fumi [Franklin's wife] and two daughters, close the door, turn your phone off. Sit down and decide what's best for the Franklin family. Maybe that's at Vanderbilt, maybe somewhere else. Then open door up and don't look back."

Jeff.schuler@mcall.com
Twitter: @jschulermc


JAMES FRANKLIN COACHING RESUME
1995—wide receivers coach, Kutztown
1996—defensive backs coach, East Stroudsburg
1997—wide receivers coach, James Madison
1998—tight ends coach, Washington State
1999—wide receivers coach, Idaho State
2000-04—wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator, Maryland
2005—wide receivers coach, Green Bay Packers (NFL)
2006-07—offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, Kansas State
2008-10—offensive coordinator/assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach, Maryland
2011-13—head coach, Vanderbilt