STATE COLLEGE —Penn State coach James Franklin confirmed Tuesday that he has changed agents, but the eighth-year coach said the change happened well before it was reported Monday night.
FootballScoop reported Monday night that Franklin changed agents from Trace Armstrong of Athletes First to Jimmy Sexton of Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
During his Tuesday afternoon news conference, though, Franklin said the switch didn’t happen recently.
“I’m not going to get into the details, but what I will tell you is this is being reported now, but this is something that happened over the summer,” Franklin said. “Obviously, I didn’t make an announcement. I don’t know anybody that ever does when that happens, but this is something that happened over the summer that’s just being reported now.”
Franklin declined to elaborate with any details.
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Sexton is regarded as one of the more powerful agents in college football. He represents Alabama’s Nick Saban, Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Florida’s Dan Mullen and plenty of other high-profile coaches. CAA is also regarded as one of the most powerful agencies in sports.
The report of Franklin’s switch comes as the Penn State coach’s name has appeared on candidate lists for opening jobs at USC and LSU. USC fired Clay Helton in September, while LSU and Ed Orgeron will part ways at the end of the season.
Franklin was previously asked about his name being linked to the USC job, and he said he would handle any speculation internally with his team.
On Tuesday, Franklin was asked if he was committed to being the coach at Penn State beyond this season.
“Yeah, obviously, I’ve been asked this question multiple times, and my focus is completely on Illinois and this team and this program,” Franklin said. “I think I’ve shown over my eight years, my commitment to this university and this community, and that’s kind of my statement.”
Franklin appeared to misspeak when mentioning Illinois, last weekend’s opponent, instead of Ohio State, this weekend’s opponent.
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In September, Franklin said he “can’t stand any form of distraction,” and when he was asked Tuesday whether the speculation surrounding his future at Penn State had become a distraction — especially on the heels of back-to-back losses by a combined five points — Franklin said he didn’t see that within the Nittany Lions.
“It has not been a discussion or an issue that I’ve heard from the staff or I’ve heard from the players,” Franklin said. “I’ve met with the leadership council, we’ve kept it very direct, and obviously, there’s things that we have discussions in great detail in our building with our family and the players and the staff. So we try to do that the best we possibly can. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that over my eight years here, and we’ll continue to try to do that. There’s things that we can control and there’s things that we can’t from the outside. But this has been kind of a story that’s happened on numerous occasions and we just try to keep it as focused as we possibly can.”
Shortly after Franklin spoke, Penn State linebacker Ellis Brooks was asked how the team deals with the “noise” that might be surrounding the team. The Nittany Lions, Brooks said, keep their focus on what’s ahead of them. And right now, that’s a primetime matchup with the No. 5 Buckeyes.
“Well, as a team, I feel like we try to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is ball,” Brooks said.
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Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for PennLive. He can be reached at dgallen@pennlive.com. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow PennLive’s Penn State coverage on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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