STATE COLLEGE - Anyone who knows James Franklin, wouldn't have been surprised by his entrance into the media room at Beaver Stadium on Monday.

Franklin was more than pumped up for the start of his first preseason camp with the Nittany Lions.Even though he has been the Penn State head coach since January, Monday was the beginning of the new era. And everyone got to see Franklin, still energized, from when he signed his contract.Over 150 media members packed the room and look completely stunned from Franklin's first comment."How is everybody doing?," he said. "How is everybody's summer?"You guys looked shocked, like this is unusual to start it this way."Franklin is definitely very excited.He also asked every reporter that asked a question how they were doing."Isn't this nice how we're doing this, guys?" he stopped and asked during the session."I guess it's been seven months since we arrived and we've gotten a lot of work done in a short period of time," he said. "We're excited to get going and working with these guys day-in and day-out. There's also a part of me that wished we had another seven months, because it's just one of those jobs, probably no different than your guy's jobs, there's always more that you wish you could do and you always wish you had more time."He seemed pumped that there is a football game just weeks away.He has his family back again. His wife, Fumi, and their daughters Addy and Shola just joined him permanently this past Friday from their previous home base in Tennessee.Franklin, who spent the past seven months living out of hotels and his office in the Lasch building is moving into a new home with his wife and kids. He met them the other day at the airport with balloons in hand."With all of the things he had to do, he stopped the day and said, 'Hey, I got to go pick my family up.' To me, that really shows the guy cares," said Charles Huff, who coaches special teams and running backs. "He could have easily said, 'Hey, Coach Huff, why don't you go pick my family up while I finish this interview? Or while I finish dealing with these recruits?'"Whenever a question came up about personnel or what type of strategy he might use on game day, he stopped and explained how he didn't want to give away too much information.He even went as far as asked one reporter if he was from Orlando and asked the question as if UCF coach George O'Leary was "watching."He then waved to the cameras in the crowd and said, "Hi George!"On a more serious note, he talked about juggling practice the next two weeks because players are still in summer classes, and how "academics always are priority number one."He also stressed how chemistry and team morale are "just as important if not more as the X's and O's and toughness."Spending the past two seasons with Bill O'Brien and 2011 with Joe Paterno, the seniors are facing a new coach once again.Cornerback Jordan Lucas bought into Franklin after he addressed the entire squad as sort of an unofficial introduction to the season."Just how fired up he was with us, that let me know, 'Alright, this is about to go down, this is going to be a down, this is going to be a great season.' He just has so much passion when he talks to us and we can tell it was real. ... We could just tell by the way he was talking that he really meant what he said."He started his first practice looking like he used to do a quarterback for East Stroudsburg University.He made sure just about every Lion received an encouraging high-five, butt-slap or jump-bump during warm-ups.The game against UCF can't come soon enough. And neither can the home opener against Akron.Franklin may not be the "Energizer Bunny".But he's close.