Here’s what James Franklin, Penn State said about HBO filming its ‘Hard Knocks’-style show this week
Even with HBO cameras milling around the football building, Penn State defensive tackle Robert Windsor said it’s business as usual this week.
“You just kind of get numb to it after a while,” the fifth-year senior said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s just like, ‘Oh there’s cameras.’ At first it’s kind of weird and you’re not yourself, but you learn to be yourself. It’s like they are there all the time.”
HBO is filming Penn State this week as part of its “24/7 College Football” series, which is profiling four college football teams in four weeks. The hourlong Penn State-based episode will film this week, leading into Saturday afternoon’s Purdue game.
The episode will then air on HBO at 10 p.m. next Wednesday.
“I think probably the most important piece of it is people getting to know our players on a more significant level, getting to know our coaches and staff on a more significant level, because we’ve got great people,” head coach James Franklin said. “I think sometimes with football, with the uniforms and the helmets, there’s a disconnect sometimes with the people that are in those helmets.”
Franklin said his program has received offers to film like this before — but, in the past, he’s declined. He didn’t want to get into specifics Tuesday afternoon on what changed his mind, but he did say, “We are at a good place right now, and we can handle it.”
The Nittany Lions’ sixth-year head coach said the leadership council on the football team and his staff both saw this as a positive. Franklin said in August it was an opportunity they were still considering but, by mid-September, they opted to jump in.
“It’s going to be fun to watch just because it’s about us,” Windsor added. “But nothing’s really changed.”
According to Franklin, he won’t watch a final cut before the episode premieres. But he intimated that “24/7 College Football” should be a bit more family-friendly than its NFL counterpart, “Hard Knocks,” where four-letter cuss words and more colorful language are staples.
Franklin labeled the fan base as “conservative,” so he said the university made sure the partnership with HBO was fully vetted with that in mind.
“Obviously, Penn State wouldn’t agree to do something like this if we weren’t completely comfortable with all the details and specifics of it,” Franklin added.
Other episodes of the series will center around the Florida Gators (air time: 10 p.m. Wednesday), Arizona State Sun Devils (10 p.m. Oct. 16) and Washington State Cougars (10 p.m. Oct. 23).
The show will be narrated by Liev Schreiber, the voice of the award-winning “Hard Knocks” series. Bo Mattingly will serve as an executive producer; he previously produced ESPN’s “Training Days: Rolling with the Tide,” about Nick Saban and Alabama during training camp. And Zac Reeder — an executive producer on “The Outpost” — helped develop the idea as another executive producer.
When asked if HBO would have Penn State players imitate Franklin, like “Hard Knocks” did with former Penn State coach Bill O’Brien’s players on the Houston Texans, Windsor shook his head. But a big smile also spread across his face.
“I don’t know,” Windsor said about the impressions. “But we can get that arranged.”
The Nittany Lions will take on Purdue at noon Saturday in the annual Homecoming game. That will air on ESPN.
This story was originally published October 1, 2019 at 3:53 PM.