James Franklin what life lessons to take away from up-and-down season

James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions started the year strong, but have lost their last three games.

When asked about finding time to teach his team life lessons in the middle of an up-and-down season, Franklin didn’t hesitate.

“There’s always time for it,” Franklin responded. “At the moment, you better learn from it, you better grow, you better evolve and you better constantly be learning. That’s for all of us, right? ”

Franklin says everyone involved in the Penn State football operation has their own responsibility to constantly learn and grow.

“That’s the players in meetings,” he added. “That’s the coaches in meetings. That’s coaches with the media. That’s all of it. Don’t be defensive, be honest. Be as transparent as you possibly can be. Have a lot of discussions. Challenge yourself, challenge each other and find a way to get better and then learn from it.”

The Penn State head coach took it a step further, saying some lessons can be implemented in the season, while others can be used in future years for the betterment of the program.

“Whether it’s something you’re gonna apply right away this week, or whether it’s something you’re going to write down and keep track of for next season,” Franklin said. “So that’s what we try to do, every single experience and every single day. We try to correct and we try to improve.”

James Franklin on life lessons during adversity

Penn State opened the year as one of the hottest teams in the nation. The Nittany Lions pulled off wins over Wisconsin and Auburn to remain undefeated after five games.

Franklin says life lessons can be applied when a program is winning, or losing, but the recent adversity has created even more opportunities to grow as a unit.

“Obviously you would like to still learn some of those lessons while still winning,” James Franklin said. “I think we talked about that the first five weeks. There were things that needed to get corrected while we were winning so they don’t come back to bite you, and we did that really well for five weeks.”

Franklin added that against good teams, there isn’t room for mistakes.

“But some of those things were still apparent, ” the Nittany Lions head coach continued. “In close, highly-contested games against really good opponents, they can come back to bite you. So I think you always have to look at it that way, in football, and in life. And we do that every single Sunday, as coaches we have to do it every single day. I know I have to come in with that attitude into this press conference.”

James Franklin and the Nittany Lions will look to change the narrative on Saturday when they battle Maryland at 3:30 p.m. ET.