Penn State football coach James Franklin still frustrated, out of answers after Big Ten decision
It’s been a little over a week since the Big Ten postponed the fall 2020 college football season, and Penn State head coach James Franklin is in the same position he was in on the day of the Aug. 11 announcement.
The seventh-year head coach — who describes one of his responsibilities being “to set the vision, set the plan and then drive everybody toward that vision and plan” — feels as if he lacks the information needed to do his job effectively. He doesn’t have the answers to questions his players, players’ parents and recruits are asking.
“It’s difficult to continue getting up in front of those people, as the leader of my organization, and not only deliver bad news, but not be able to deliver the answers to their questions,” Franklin told reporters on a Zoom conference call Wednesday morning.
Franklin said he felt that questions regarding player eligibility, scholarship limits and roster sizes should’ve been answered before the Big Ten finalized any decision. A lack of understanding as to how exactly the decision was made has only created more frustration. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren has provided little explanation about the process that canceled fall football for the conference just six days after the release of a conference-only schedule.
“I don’t really have an issue with the decision, because at the end of the day, we made a decision based on what we thought was in the student-athletes’ best interest from a health and welfare standpoint,” Franklin said. “... I think in some ways, there should be some praise for the decision that was made. But my issue has been the process and the timing of it.”
In the past week, Penn State players and their parents have petitioned for the conference to reinstate the fall schedule it presented on Aug. 5. Franklin supports their efforts, but said he doesn’t see the Big Ten reversing its decision.
Now, Franklin said he’s trying to balance fighting for his players and their parents to have their voices heard with maintaining positive relationships with those above him in the chain of command.
“I think you can probably predict what those have been like,” Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said Monday of her recent conversations with Franklin. “I mean, he’s the head football coach at Penn State. And he loves his players. He loves them as young men. … He loves them as athletes and competitors, and he aches for them.”
The toughest part of accepting the Big Ten’s decision for Franklin was feeling like the sacrifices he and others within his program made were in vain. During preseason camp, players wore helmets with full face shields and maintained social distancing during drills. Parents weren’t allowed at practices.
Franklin credited those protocols for no players, coaches or staff members testing having tested positive for COVID-19 since the first week of practice.
“I’m not naive (enough) to think that this was going to be smooth sailing the whole time,” Franklin said. “But I think that was the hard part. So many people worked so hard to come up with a plan to make it work, and then all of a sudden, it changes and you weren’t a part of the conversation and you didn’t completely understand why.”
Though he’s still in search of answers, Franklin will try to push forward to help formulate a plan for the future using the information he does know — even if it isn’t much.
“I’ve got to try to work as hard as I can to create a new picture that looks as close to the old picture as we possibly can,” Franklin said. “We want to try to get the picture back to as normal as we possibly can.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:52 PM.
