James Franklin tweets letter he received from Lou Holtz in 1996 (Photo)

James Franklin has been Penn State’s head coach for eight months now, but he and his family were only recently able to move into their new house in the State College area. As that moving process continues, Franklin’s wife, Fumi, made a pretty cool discovery that the coach shared on Twitter.

She found a letter former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz sent to Franklin – then a defensive backs coach at his alma mater, East Stroudsburg University – from 1996.

Franklin was in just his second year as a college assistant and appeared to be looking for advice from Holtz, who was a few months away from beginning his final season with the Fighting Irish.

The letter from Holtz read:

Thank you very much for your letter, and I hope we both have an outstanding year in 1996. I wish I could provide you with some advice, but I’m looking for some myself.

Always believe in yourself and your players!

Sincerely,

Lou Holtz

Looking back, Holtz saying that he was also looking for advice provides a glimpse into Holtz's mind at the time as he was contemplating the direction of his own career.

Holtz then spent a few years away from the sideline after leaving South Bend and ended up coaching at South Carolina from 1999-2004. He now works as an analyst for ESPN.

Franklin had various stints as an assistant across the country before landing his first head coaching gig at Vanderbilt in 2011. He then accepted the head coaching job at Penn State in January.

What a cool find.

For more Penn State news, visit BlueWhiteIllustrated.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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