Less than one year ago, Penn State released a video dubbing the Lasch Football Building - which opened in 1999 - as the "best in the nation."
Now, new head coach James Franklin is telling Nittany Lions fans and boosters that Penn State's facilities are worse than the place he arrived from.
"To put it in a little bit of perspective for you, when I was at Vanderbilt, we had the last-place facilities in the SEC," said Franklin. "It wasn't even close. And our facilities at Vanderbilt (were) better than what they are at Penn State right now, which is probably a little shocking to people."
Speaking at a coaches caravan stop in King of Prussia, Pa., outlined what exactly he wanted moving forward. He pulled no punches.
"It's everything," said Franklin. "It's the indoor facility. Our turf needs to be replaced outside and inside. The carpet. The paint. The branding. The furniture. The technology. What I would recommend (the media) do is you get on the Internet and you do some research on what does Oregon have? What does USC have? What does Oklahoma State have? … I think it's important for us to be aware of what's really out there."
Penn State football wasn't exactly a picture of modernity under Joe Paterno, and Bill O'Brien wasn't in State College long enough to make any headway on that front. So now it falls to Franklin to bring Penn State up to speed.
"It's going to be getting people to support that vision and jump on board with us through fundraising and those types of things. I think Penn State has, and wants to again, be able to provide a first-class experience for the student-athletes. They've done that for a long time, and there's just some things we need to tweak and get back right. It's become a little bit of an arms race in college football if you look at what's going on, and we want to be a part of that."
Franklin employed a similar tactic at Vanderbilt, beating the drum for new facilities almost from the moment he stepped foot in Nashville. The Commodores opened a $30 million indoor facility in November.