New Penn State coach James Franklin's cavalier attitude about stealing recruits from his former school may not be endearing him to many college football fans outside the Penn State campus.
And Penn State is in no position to alienate any more fans.
According to USA TODAY Sports, Franklin did the national sports radio show tour on Tuesday, appearing on the Dan Patrick Show and ESPN's SVP and Rusillo. Franklin was asked about poaching the Commodores recruits - three original Vanderbilt pledges changed their commitment to Penn State in the last week, and four other Vanderbilt verbal commitments have declared that they have received scholarship offers from Franklin at Penn State.
"I don't know what the (unwritten) rules are there," Franklin said on The Dan Patrick Show. "I know that I've been sitting in living rooms with families and kids, and selling them on a dream and selling them on a vision and our relationship. And I think a lot of people say kids should commit to a school, not a coach. But the reality is they do. Families and kids, they want to make sure their son is going to be taken care of and it's about the relationship aspect.
"So my responsibility is to do everything in my power to make sure that I put a team together that can help Penn State be successful. The people that I've been recruiting for the last two years that I know inside and out, and know the type of men they are and type of families they come from, that's going to happen. And my job now is to do everything I possibly can to help Penn State be successful."
By pilfering Vanderbilt's recruits, however, Franklin could cause Penn State to lose some of the sympathy that former coach Bill O'Brien spent the last two years created after the Jerry Sandusky scandal made the school the ultimate villain.
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