Penn State's James Franklin says frustration, questions build in wake of Big Ten postponement

For James Franklin, the frustration of losing the fall football season might never disappear.

The looks on his Penn State players’ faces — he described them as “confused” — the day he delivered the bad news may remain seared in his mind for as long as he is coaching.

He called the experience “gut-wrenching.”

And he’ll forever appreciate how well those on campus and in his locker room followed the protocols to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus. After one week of practice, everyone in the program was tested — players, coaches and staff — and there were no positive results, he said.

“It was working. It was working really well,” said Franklin, who added he threatened to send anyone home who was not wearing a mask that covers the mouth and nose. “I felt like a mother hen.

“A lot of people sacrificed a lot of things to allow for the football season to happen.”

Then, the Big Ten stepped in Aug. 11 and postponed the season, presumably to the winter or spring 2021. Franklin called it, perhaps, the most important decision in the history of the conference.

“In some ways, there should be some praise for the decision,” Franklin said, noting it was made out of concern for people’s health. “But my issue has been the process and the timing of it.

“The amount of communication we (coaches) had (with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren) before and after has been pretty good. When the decision was actually being made, it caught a lot of people off guard.

“And then all of a sudden it changes, and you weren’t a part of the conversation and you didn’t completely understand why.”

Franklin said he would have appreciated more time to work with the NCAA and Big Ten on the fallout from delaying the season and to answer a long list of questions from players and parents about eligibility, scholarships, the next game and roster management with new recruits enrolling in January.

“It’s the job of the leader to have the answers or find the answers, and I was not able to do that,” Franklin said. “That was the challenge.”

The other issue is the separation among Power 5 conferences. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 are planning to play this fall; the Big Ten and Pac-12 are not. Franklin said he doesn’t expect the Big Ten to reverse its mandate.

Franklin is fearful of an inequitable split among the college football elite in terms of recruiting and practice time.

“If we’re playing (next year) and (the SEC, ACC and Big 12) are out recruiting, that’s going to have a long-term impact,” he said.

He’s also upset with the NCAA football oversight committee’s proposal to allow teams whose seasons were postponed only 12 hours a week to work with players. Meanwhile, schools playing in the fall would have a normal practice schedule.

“We put a plan together, but it was based on 20 hours,” he said.

“I don’t agree at all with the 12 hours. That makes no sense that other teams are going to be playing a season, and we’re only going to get to work with our guys for 12 hours.

“The NCAA that I grew up with was about trying to create as level of a playing field as you possibly could create,” he said. “And right now, we’re not living within those times.”

Franklin said he favors a winter season, as opposed to the spring, to create more down time before the start of the 2021 season.

Using the domed stadiums within the Big Ten footprint in Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Detroit has been discussed.

“In a perfect world, would you love to have games at Beaver Stadium this winter, and be able to have fans there and be able to help the local economy? Without a doubt,” he said. “Based on all the information we have, I don’t know how realistic that is right now.”

The other issue is one that most impacts the players.

“We had a chance to be pretty good,” Franklin said. “We got a good-looking team. We’re big. We’re long. We’re lean. We got a bunch of guys who are over 300 pounds who look like they’re 270, 260.”

Penn State is ranked No. 7 in the preseason coaches poll.

“Is that part of it, that you felt like this season had the opportunity to be a special season for Penn State? Yes. That’s part of the frustration,” he said.

“I try not to spend time thinking about the things I can’t control.”