Penn State HC James Franklin: USC, LSU links aren't distractions for team

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin told reporters Tuesday that he expects injured quarterback Sean Clifford will be "100%" healthy for this coming Saturday's matchup at the No. 5 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, but reporters understandably wanted to discuss Franklin being linked in stories and rumors with job openings at USC and, more recently, LSU. 

According to Mark Wogenrich of AllPennState, Franklin told reporters he doesn't believe such speculation about his future is distracting the team this fall. 

"It has not been a discussion or an issue that I've heard from the staff, or I’ve heard from the players," Franklin explained. "I’ve met with the [players'] Leadership Council. We’ve kept it very direct, and obviously there’s things that we have discussions [about] in great detail in our building with our families and our players and the staff. So we try to do that the best we possibly can.

"I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that over my eight years here and we’ll continue to try to do that. There’s things that we can control and there’s things that we can’t from the outside, but this has been kind of a story that’s happened on numerous occasions. And we just try to keep it as focused as we possibly can." 

A report surfaced Monday evening that Franklin changed representation and moved from Trace Armstrong of Athletes First to Jimmy Sexton of Creative Artists Agency. Franklin confirmed that story but added that "this is something that happened over the summer that's just being reported now." 

Franklin also said he has "tremendous faith in our leadership that’s currently on campus now" with university president Eric Barron retiring in June and athletic director Sandy Barbour set to be out of contract after August 2023.