James Franklin talks Penn State’s recruiting, portal plans while preparing for CFP run

James Franklin and Penn State football are already diving head-first into the busiest month on the college sports calendar.

With two weeks left in the regular season, Penn State still has a viable path to December 7’s Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis. Regardless of the conference title race, the No. 4 Nittany Lions are in the driver’s seat to host a home College Football Playoff game on the weekend of December 21.

Inside the Lasch Building, Franklin and the Penn State football staff must also balance the player personnel side of December. The Nittany Lions are putting the finishing touches on a top-15 class in the 2025 recruiting cycle, with the early National Signing Period beginning on December 4. They then must balance the give-and-take of the transfer portal, which officially opens on December 9.

James Franklin discusses how Penn State football staff will handle recruiting, transfer portal amid playoff preparations

© Matthew O’Haren-Imagn Images

Following Wednesday evening’s practice, James Franklin was asked how Penn State football plans to handle December’s priorities amid a postseason push. You can find his full response below:

“That’s where having a bigger staff is helpful. I think there’s a lot of arguments about people seeing the size of the staff. I don’t know how you do it today without that,” Franklin said. “But then, not only that, it’s not just the size. They got to be really, really qualified people.

“We’re fortunate here. We got a group of people that have been with us for a long time, and they’re working on those things. That’s what they’re doing 16-18 hours a day.

“So, you know, even Signing Day is going to be different. Like, we’re going to have Signing Day, and typically, it’s the whole staff. It’s going to be me and the recruiting staff [this year], and the rest of the coaches are going to be doing the game planning and doing all those types of things.

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“So we do take some time every single week where myself and those guys will organize it, and then we’ll include the coaches in the part of the conversation that they need to be a part of. But, have it already organized and ready to go, so we’re being as efficient as possible.

“And then, typically, we try to do it late in the week, like on a Thursday and Friday, when most of the game planning and everything is done. We try to do it then as well, but it takes a lot of organization and vision and communication to make sure everybody’s on the same page.

“And that I’m hearing, and [general manager] Andy Frank is hearing, and [director of player personnel] Kenny [Sanders] is hearing from our staff to make sure that we’re formulating the best plan based on all the information that we have.”

Penn State football travels to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on CBS.

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