Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour already declared James Franklin was not “on the hot seat.”

On Thursday, Franklin got another vote of confidence from his boss.

In an interview with ESPN, Barbour said “there’s no doubt in my mind that James is going to be our football coach long term.”

Barbour went into more detail about why Franklin’s job isn’t in jeopardy.

“I get there’s a frustration with where we are,” Barbour told ESPN. “I’d be worried if there wasn’t. I want Penn State football to stand for excellence. Always has and always will. To some degree, I want our fans to be impatient, but I also want them to understand factual challenges.”

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Penn State is off to a 3-2 start and is 1-1 in conference play. The Lions haven’t exceeded seven wins in the Franklin era, nor have they beaten a ranked team yet.

But Franklin is finally dealing with a full set of scholarships after the Jerry Sandusky-related sanctions the NCAA put on the program.

Barbour said in the beginning of the calendar year that she wanted Penn State to be competing for conference titles again and that improvement was key for the program. Some might’ve interpreted that as saying the Lions needed to compete with the B1G East powers for Franklin to keep his job.

If Barbour’s recent comments are any indication, that’s the not case. For the time being, it appears Franklin will at least exceed the halfway mark of the six-year deal he signed in January 2014.