Penn State head coach James Franklin has found going on a staff retreat before the start of a season to be beneficial in his coaching career, and that does not appear to be changing now as the head coach of the Nittany Lions.
“We always do a staff retreat in the summer, before camp starts,’' Franklin said in a story published by The Patriot News. “I always find it’s good to get away from the office because it’s hard to sit down and get a lot of concentrated amount of time together. Because if you’re in the office, everybody’s getting pulled out for something. So we’ll go away and do a staff retreat.”
Will there be camp fires and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs? That is unknown, but Franklin will use the time to have talks with his entire staff they may not be able to have often in the football offices at Penn State once the season prep ramps up.
“That’s a time for us to talk philosophy,” Franklin explained. “Coaches never want to take the time to talk philosophy when we’re drawing up plays and blitzes and things like that. And I think making sure that we’re all on the same page every year, especially when we have staff come and go and new members come in.”
One thing Franklin has been vocal about since being hired by Penn State is how loyal he is to his guys. When discussing how he would assemble his coaching staff back in January, Franklin said he is very loyal to his staff and he showed that by brining a number of Vanderbilt assistants up north with him. There is something to be said about a cohesive coaching staff with this kind of bond, and the uniformity of the coaching staff has already been showing through on social media this past spring.
Every coaching staff has some sort of identity, but this is one that has not been on public display at Penn State in some time.