"Go Hard or Go Home"—for sophomore wrestler Steve Franklin this isn’t just a popular Bay Area song, it’s a way of life.

Since transferring to SF State in the fall, the 6’5’’, 230-pound wrestler has been anything but quiet. Posting a 23-10 record in his first full season as a Gator in the heavyweight division, Franklin has said he hopes to work hard enough to fulfill coach Lars Jensen’s prediction that he will become the next great heavyweight wrestler at SF State.

While that may be a lot of pressure to put on a sophomore, Jensen said that with Franklin’s strong work ethic and high level of maturity he will not have a problem living up to such high expectations.

“There’s a ton of potential there, he has already won 23 matches as a sophomore, which is really good. And he’s got 10 pins, which is in the top 10 for the all-time pins record,” Jensen said.

Franklin agrees with his coach's assessment.

“I don’t want to sound all cocky, but definitely I think I could be one of the all-time greats. That’s what I’m working for,” Franklin said. “You have to want to be the best.”

And in his career, so far, he has been one of the best. At Middleton High School Franklin was ranked number four in the state and in his only year at Santa Rosa Community College he was named an All-American.

Franklin said it was his parents that pushed him to work hard for his goals.

“That’s one big difference from high school and college. In high school there are a lot of people pushing you. In college you’ve got to push yourself,” he said. “Now they aren’t here to push me, but I still have to work hard.”

The work has shown in the results as he leads the team in wins and has double the amount of pins as the next closest guy.

“Steve is a very hard worker; always open-minded and never negative,” teammate Curtis Schurkamp said. “He has a motor that never quits.”

A normal week of training for Franklin not only includes the five days a week, two hours a day practices with the team, but also a few personal workouts.

Whether it is extra weight lifting or additional running, Franklin takes extreme pride in his workouts, as he said he feels he always needs to push himself to practice harder and work harder than anyone else.

“I like to say I train hard. Once I started winning I was like ‘I just want to win more,’ so that means I have to practice harder,” said Franklin.

Jensen believes his philosophy of having his wrestlers face D-I competition is an important part of their improvement.

Some sophomores might get intimidated by facing somebody like Cal State Fullerton’s Wade Sauer, the nation’s fourth ranked wrestler, not Franklin. For him the match-up was an opportunity to go against the best.

“That’s definitely a confidence builder. When you wrestle up at the D1 level, then come back down to the D2 level, it gets easier,” Franklin said, despite the loss.

Even though Jensen said he believes Franklin is very mature for his age mentally, physically, he says, Franklin is going to have to put on 15 to 20 pounds of muscle to reach his potential.

Currently wrestling in the 285-pound weight class, Franklin's actual weight is around 230 pounds. Jensen said he hopes to have Franklin around 250 pounds for next season.

“There are some flaws in his technique that we have to work on, but the biggest thing for him is gaining that muscle. Once he gains that extra strength he will be right there with the best,” Jensen said. “For him it shouldn’t be a problem.”

With the NCAA DII Western Regional tournament coming up, Jensen believes that right now Franklin is “very capable of being second or third place” and expects him to be in the finals.

As far as nationals go, Jensen wants Franklin to gain the experience of being on the big stage in preparation for the coming years.

“He’s already got a year of college experience,” Jensen said. “In his junior and senior years he is going to be doing some damage.”