STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- As big as the world of college football coaching is it's also somehow small enough that David Corley interviewed with James Franklin twice in the past six years.
"I interviewed for the same position I'm in right now when he was at Vanderbilt," Corley, Penn State's newly appointed wide receivers coach said. "That's when I got introduced to coach Franklin. How you see him every day, his energy level and enthusiasm, that's how those interviews go. He's the same guy in the interviews and he's looking for guys that can match his energy level in those interviews and kind of how you preset yourself. It's fun if that's what you're about, and that's what I'm about."
Back in 2012 the best fit for the Vanderbilt job was Josh Gattis, the young, up and coming assistant coach who spent the previous season at Western Michigan. Six years and one school later, it was Corley who was hired last month to replace Gattis after the latter accepted a job on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama.
Franklin hasn't been shy about his need to stay in contact with other assistant coaches throughout the country, always seeking to keep tabs on coaches who he identifies as potential fits for his staff. With as much movement as the Lions' staff had this offseason -- one where they've replaced an offensive coordinator, found a new wide receivers coach, hired a running backs coach and added a 10th assistant -- staying one step ahead allowed Franklin to circle back to Corley for a second time.
After all, how many times has Franklin mentioned that he has a plan for everything? Well, this offseason was a testament to his ability to identify, keep tabs on and land assistant coaches in a timely manner, knowing for the past several years that at some point given the team's success his Penn State assistants would have opportunities elsewhere.
While Franklin and Corley exchanged texts and direct messages on Twitter from time to time throughout the years since the Vanderbilt interview -- and the annual coaching convention is a hotbed for job seekers and coaches who need to stay up to date on potential hires -- Franklin also tapped into a few other resources. One of those was former Penn State graduate assistant and current New Orleans Saints assistant coach Joe Brady.
"Joe always thought the world of David," Franklin said.
Brady was a wide receiver at William & Mary and his playing career overlapped with the six years Corley spent coaching the running backs, quarterbacks and wide receivers at William & Mary.
"I kind of kept tracking (Corley) and when the job came open again, he was right at the top of the list because we had interviewed him five years earlier," Franklin said. "The people that I'm very close with and I respect that he's worked with, a guy by the name of Kevin Rogers who I've known forever, got a lot of respect for, very respected coach in the industry and that's been like a mentor to David."
Rogers' lengthy coaching career began in 1974 as a high school assistant in Virginia and between jobs at Navy, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Temple and with the Minnesota Vikings included two stints at Corley's alma mater, William & Mary.
"William & Mary is a school and program that I respect," Franklin said. "Coach has done a great job there for a long time. It's a great academic intuition. And I think you guys know, he fits a lot of the characteristics that I really like. He's aggressive, he's smart, went to an academic school, is passionate about coaching. Has got a background, played quarterback. So a lot of things that I'm attracted to in coaches that I've seen those patterns be successful in the past, he had a lot of those attributes. So (it) just made sense."
It'll also make sense when Corley recruits in New Jersey at Bergen Catholic, the place where the father of his former William & Mary teammate is the head coach at the prep powerhouse. Corley will also recruit Atlanta and the area north of the city, Virginia Beach and the Tidewater area.
"Going through there the last couple weeks or so I found that there's a lot of people up there I have connections with," Corley said. "Guys I played college football with, some guys that they know that know some of those coaches. So when I walk into some of those schools, there's a lot of familiar faces."
Penn State's wide receivers will spend part of this winter and spring trying to get familiar with the new face at the front of their meeting room and come this summer the Nittany Lions' three wide receiver signees will join them. Corley said he already sat down with all of the wide receivers to go over expectations and to start getting to know them, a process that will unfold in the coming months.
"You like to work with good people at the end of the day," Corley said. "(You want) somebody that you feel like you're going to be able to learn some things from, be able to help you grow and at the same time, this is Penn State. You know what I mean? It's an opportunity to come and join a program like this, and coach Franklin's done a great job of building this program up to where it is and I'm looking forward to helping him take it to another level."
