James Franklin's Insistence on Being Positive Comes Through at Press Conference

In theory, it should be really easy to remain positive after winning a football game as long as players don't get hurt or anything. You won! 1-0 this week! Everything should be great.

But, uh, there were some concerns with today's Penn State game. Sure, the Nittany Lions beat Army, but it was a 20-14 win over the worst of the three service academies, a narrow win over a team that has lost to Fordham, UConn, and Wake this season. There was a fair amount of questionable offensive playcalling, the defense got gassed going up against the weird Black Knights attack (which, to be fair, happens to everyone), and there were some really strange decisions, like the call to go for one instead of two when the Nittany Lions had a 12-point lead after Mike Gesicki's touchdown catch at the end of the third quarter.

But god dammit, James Franklin is going to do everything in his power to remain positive, because James Franklin is a positive guy, and he's not going to stop looking at the world through a positive lens now.

After today's game, here's how Franklin kicked off his press conference:

Not too bad, he seemed to generally call things out when he needs to – namely in the kicking game – but he did hammer home the positive message as much as possible. He ended his opening statement with some positive stuff, but it wasn't too over the top.

And then, hoo boy, the last question. I don't know what happened in between, because I sat on my couch today, but Franklin was asked a question which led to him going on a 91-second long rant about how he doesn't pay attention to point spreads, how he went to Atlantic City once when he was 24 and hasn't gambled since because he felt sick after losing $20, and that he is going to be positive beyond all belief. Franklin said he loves all of these things: the players, the school, the colors, Penn State, Happy Valley, the community, "our guys," the staff, the opportunity at Penn State, the players (again), the coaches (again), the media, everybody, and it. Here's the clip:

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a dude who is frustrated with something. I don't know if it's with the media or with his team's performance or what, but we have never seen Franklin go into super-ultra-hyperdrive mode before, at least not like this. Trying to analyze and break him down is pointless, because none of us know what's going on inside of his head, but give Franklin credit: he seems like a lot of fans, because it looks like something bugged him today.