With Big Ten decision made, hard work begins for Penn State football program

On Wednesday, when the Big Ten made the decision to move forward with a football season, it was hailed as a victory for players, coaches and fans — a cause for great celebration.

By Thursday, a little bit of reality began to set in.

Penn State’s James Franklin is about to coach a football team while a pandemic that has killed almost 200,000 Americans rages around him.

“I took one weight off and put other weights back on,” Franklin said. “I’m thankful and appreciative that we have this opportunity. I’m just trying to stay open-minded and creative. I think the frustration comes when you try to make this year like anything you’ve experienced before. It’s not.

“To kind of get some normalcy back is great, but that normalcy has just come with a new set of challenges.”

Among those challenges, on Tuesday, Penn State reported 458 new positive coronavirus tests. On Wednesday, the athletic department reported 50 new cases. Centre County is one of the hottest hot spots in the country.

There will be a litany of health and safety protocols teams will have to follow meticulously. Players will be tested incessantly, and some results surely will be positive. Games could be canceled. The standings, at the end of an eight-game conference season, could be an uneven mess. No fans will be allowed in stadiums.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Franklin said. “It’s going to continue to be challenging. We’re going to have to continue to make great choices, not only as a football program but also away from the football program in our behavior as coaches and student-athletes.”

Make no mistake, though. Franklin and athletic director Sandy Barbour have taken on their new weights voluntarily and enthusiastically.

If they had any pangs of trepidation, they weren’t letting on Thursday.

“I think it goes back to the opportunity to play, play for championships for our student-athletes, play the game they love, and frankly, give our community something to rally around, even it’s only on TV,” said Barbour, who emphasized the conference’s decision to change course was based on evolving scientific evidence.

Franklin said once players and their families made it clear they wanted a season to take place, he had an obligation to fight for that outcome.

“It’s totally about the players,” Franklin said. “It’s an opportunity for some of them to create value for themselves. It’s about them having an opportunity to go play in the NFL. It’s about, obviously, the opportunity to compete for championships. But it’s totally about the players. It starts and ends with those guys and specifically the seniors.”

Franklin and Barbour discussed several other challenges that come with a return to play during Thursday’s video conference with reporters.

• Penn State has resumed a 20-hour work week. Barbour said the announcement of a schedule is due within a week. Penn State players will be practicing in pads by the end of September.

“When was the last time a Big Ten football player tackled anyone?” Franklin said. “Most of us, we had no spring practices. There’s an aspect of that, we’ve got to get some tackling in. You can’t go from last season to your first game never tackling anyone.”

• If a team has to cancel a game because of positive tests, it will be considered a no contest, not a forfeit, Barbour said. She also said the conference has left open the possibility of games being moved to domes in December if weather requires it.

• Franklin said the inability to host recruits for on-campus visits hurts Penn State.

“It’s not like we have a bunch of recruits that live within an hour of campus,” he said. “This is a place you have to come see.”

He fell on his sword for the class the Nittany Lions have put together so far, which ranks 33rd in the country according to 247sports.com, one spot behind Pitt. The Nittany Lions recently lost five-star Warwick lineman Nolan Rucci to Wisconsin.

“This class is not done, but up to this point, we have not gotten it done,” Franklin said. “We have not recruited up to the standard that we normally have. I can make excuses. I can come up with a lot of reasons for that, but we have not gotten it done the way we normally have gotten it done.”