Franklin Strikes a Balance
Terps Coordinator Is Kind, Yet Demanding

By Steve Yanda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Davin Meggett had barely begun to decelerate when he heard a familiar strained yelp aimed in his direction. This was a routine running back drill on the fourth day of training camp. Just follow your blocker.

The freshman slowed to a trot and let the admonition wash over him. "Davin! I told you not to run right behind him!" came the shrill voice. "I told you to run on the inside, and what did you do? You ran right up behind him. . . . I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't do that."

Meggett turned and faced a bald man decked out in black shorts, black shirt and black shades. Both of the man's hands were extended in the air, as if he were performing the first motion of "YMCA."

As the man lowered his hands to his hips, he paused, then added one last comment. "I love you, though," James Franklin said. Meggett returned to the back of the line, and the drill continued.

Franklin returned to Maryland last December much the same person he was when he left three years before: loud, passionate, excitable. And yet, the experiences -- both personal and professional -- he gained during his time away have led to profound, if subtle, differences in the man charged with designing the Terrapins' offense.

He is the team's offensive coordinator, a position that enables him to be boisterous at times, stern at others and both in the span of six short sentences if the situation allows. It is balance for which Franklin strives, in Maryland's offense and in the way he directs it.

"I want us to do so well offensively that sometimes I need to pick and choose my battles," Franklin said. "Just like as a parent, you can't correct every little mistake, you can't get on 'em constantly, and I think that's what I need to learn to do, learn how to push them and get the very best out of them but not go too far. Find that fine line."

The high-wire act begins the moment he steps out of bed and ends long after he returns to the mattress. Lying there, Franklin thinks over the ways in which he can be a better husband, a better father to his 5- and 15-month-old daughters. He plans out the days in which the three of them can join him at the team's facilities for lunch because "this profession is challenging."

Then Franklin's thoughts turn to Maryland's offense, the one ranked No. 92 in the nation last season, the one he was charged with revitalizing. He mulls over players and positions, schemes and situations. How are we going to succeed on third and seven? And that's always how he frames the thought, not by micro-analyzing what play to call, but by taking a macro view of how best to gain specific results.

"I've never been the most talented guy when it came to sports," Franklin said. "I was a good high school player. I was a good [Division] II player. That's all I was. But I was driven; I was positive about my life and my opportunities. I think being a head coach and being a coordinator are two completely different things. If I was a head coach, I probably wouldn't be exactly the way I am right now, and I think the thing Maryland needs right now is energy."

Going Home Again

As much the Terrapins need Franklin's boundless vigor, he needs what the team provides him, as well. A year ago, Franklin's mother was struggling with cancer while he was 1,250 miles away at Kansas State, working his first division I coordinator gig.

On Friday, Oct. 12, Franklin called his mother. He had planned to surprise her by flying home to Philadelphia that Sunday. The Wildcats had a bye week coming up, which would allow him to spend a few days with the woman who used to work as a janitor at his high school. Afraid she would not last another 48 hours, Franklin spoiled the surprise and pleaded with her to hold on just a few more days.

The next morning, Franklin received a call from his older sister. Their mother had passed away during the night. Franklin kept his devastation to himself all day, and that evening, Kansas State piled up 463 total yards and thrashed Colorado, 47-20. Franklin broke down in the locker room following the victory. He flew home Sunday morning to see his mother, just as he had planned, though he spent the next few days planning her funeral instead of keeping her company.

"I'm back here at Maryland, and that was a big part of me coming back," Franklin said. "My sister still lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and kids, so that has an impact on me. I have a lot of uncles and cousins that live here in the area. That was tough. My mom was sick, and I was trying to do a great job as the offensive coordinator. I was away from home trying to balance all those things."

Franklin prides himself on his ability to maintain balance. A year out of college, he moved to Denmark to play for the Roskilde Kings, where he was the quarterback and offensive coordinator. Then he returned to his alma mater, East Stroudsburg (Pa.), where he worked on a master's degree while serving as a graduate assistant for the football team.

Denny Douds, East Stroudsburg's head coach for the past 34 years, said he and Franklin used to sit on Douds's porch each evening, munching on Klondike bars and talking football.

"He's always been a people person," Douds said. "He understood it's a people game first."

As a wide receivers coach at James Madison, Franklin made a similar impression on fellow assistant Ron Prince, who said he was struck by how the players gravitated toward Franklin. When Prince was named the head coach at Kansas State following the 2005 season, he hired Franklin to be his offensive coordinator.

No matter where Franklin went, he maintained the same approach: work hard, be positive and always compete. It is a set of guidelines he gleaned from his father, an African American who worked at General Motors for 32 years, and from his mother, an outgoing British woman who met Franklin's father while he was serving in the U.S. Air Force. It is an approach that has yet to fail.

Junior wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey said his mother, Vivian, became enamored of Franklin as soon as she met him during Heyward-Bey's recruitment.

"When he left [after the 2004 season], my mom was a little bit more sad than I was," Heyward-Bey said. "When she heard he was coming back, she was excited."

West Coast Comes to Maryland

In fact, many people inside College Park and out are eager to see the effect Franklin and his West Coast schemes have on the Terrapins' offense. Franklin said there will be some play action and a few gimmicks to go along with the precise passing and timed routes typically associated with West Coast offenses.

"He was really anxious about finding a place where he could go and perhaps be a head coach, and we feel that when the time is right there that maybe he'll have an opportunity whenever Coach [Ralph] Friedgen decides he doesn't want to coach any longer," Prince said. "But we think he's an up-and-comer, and we're really excited about his future."

The key, for the success of both Franklin and the Maryland offense, will be maintaining balance. Franklin said that doesn't mean fans should expect him to call running plays half the time and passing plays the other half. What it means, he said, is that defensive coordinators should know that under any circumstance, Maryland's offense has the ability to run or pass.

Likewise, Franklin won't use a 50-50 mind-set when choosing which battles to pick with his players. In 2005, he spent a season as the wide receivers coach of the Green Bay Packers, and he realized coaches don't have to motivate players to work hard in the NFL like they do in college. In that regard, he said he'll never hesitate to push when he feels it necessary.

He'll also never hesitate to share joy in a job well done, to walk that fine line, to find that balance.

On the fifth day of training camp, senior kicker Obi Egekeze nailed a 47-yard field goal that got the team out of a few sets of sprints at the end of practice. Amid the ruckus of an early-August football practice, a familiar strained yelp rose above the din. "Obi! Where's Obi?"

Franklin found his target, jumped, bumped shoulders with Egekeze and tumbled to the ground. After barrel-rolling one revolution, Franklin popped up and ran over to begin the next drill.