Penn State still undecided about Blue-White spring football game

Penn State has not yet decided if it will have a traditional Blue-White game this year.

Head coach James Franklin said Monday that there are ongoing discussions about whether or not the annual open scrimmage to end spring practice will be held and that an announcement will be coming soon.

“I think there’s some discussions right now going on with that at the university level, with our administration, as well as the administration on campus in Old Main, and just making sure we’re all on the same page,” Franklin said. “I think for us, our entire focus is on: What can we do to best position us for next year? We want to try to be able to get back as close to normal as we possibly can for next season I think a lot of things are trending in that direction, nationally as well as within our state.”

Franklin did go on to say that there will be weekend scrimmages regardless of whether or not there is a Blue-White game, which has always been the case. Ultimately, though, it feels likely that the 15th practice will be closed to the public, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear the program say in the days ahead that it will somehow close things out in a unique way, perhaps via social media or other platforms that allow the team to decide what is seen and what isn’t.

While not ideal for those who were hoping to either get into Beaver Stadium in April or watch the scrimmage on television, it could be what’s best for the program at this juncture.

“In some ways, a final practice or final scrimmage, however you want to put it, a lot of times those things in such a public setting like that are pretty vanilla,” Franklin said.

“(Not having a Blue-White game) would allow us to have a true 15th practice where we’re putting everything out there from an evaluation standpoint as well. But, there are still some conversations that are still being worked through and we hope to make an announcement here sooner rather than later.”

Penn State’s first spring practice was Monday, and it goes without saying that the Lions were looking forward to it after missing out on drills last March and April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m always raring to go and really motivated,” Franklin said. “I think obviously last year was an unbelievable opportunity to grow and learn and be challenged in a way that we’ve never been challenged before, with how the season went with some of the off-field things that we were dealing with.

“I think people are really motivated but for me, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a chip on the shoulder or anything like that, but there was tremendous lessons to be learned.”