Why Penn State football must avoid distractions to get back on track against Ohio State
“1-0.”
You hear it during every press conference, every player interview and you see it on Twitter prior to every game Penn State football plays.
Penn State head coach James Franklin’s mantra has been cited time and time again by he and his players. Yet, it doesn’t eliminate risk entirely and the team is still susceptible to letting one game affect another. In four of Franklin’s past five years at the helm, his team’s first loss of the season was immediately followed by its second. That seems to go against the mantra that is intended to keep focus on the task at hand — not thinking back to a previous game or ahead to a perceived tougher opponent.
The Penn State head coach said the mantra is still important, even if the current era of college football makes it challenging.
“We talk a lot about resiliency and being able to bounce back as soon as you possibly can,” Franklin said at his weekly Tuesday press conference. “That’s where the 1-0 mantra is so important. I think guys, a lot of times, their approach and their mentality — especially in the College Football Playoff era — these things can get magnified. Wins can get magnified, losses can get magnified. So (we’re) keeping our guys as focused as we possibly can and that’s challenging.”
Going “1-0” is more important now than ever as the team tries to navigate plenty of potential distractions with only five games left in the regular season and a difficult matchup at Ohio State this weekend.
The difficulties the team is facing begin where most do for programs — on the football field. Penn State has lost two straight games, including a brutal 20-18 9OT loss to an Illinois team that is in the bottom tier of the Big Ten.
A bounce back week is important as the group tries to get back on track. That began Monday, when several players spent their day off watching film and trying to figure out how they can grow from the loss.
“I feel like we got a great start to the week Monday, having a lot of guys in there Monday watching the film,” wide receiver Jahan Dotson said. “Even Sunday. A lot of guys, usually when teams lose, you can see guys not really being bought in anymore. That’s just not the case with this team. We’ve got a lot of guys who are still ready to go to battle every single day. Sunday was a great practice for us, Monday we had a lot of guys in there watching film.”
Watching film will help but there are a few issues it can’t solve. That includes the health of redshirt senior starting quarterback Sean Clifford. Clifford left the team’s loss to Iowa in the second quarter with an undisclosed injury and seemed to struggle with it against Illinois.
Franklin said Clifford’s health was more of a day-to-day situation last week but this week things have cleared up rather quickly. In fact, Franklin said his quarterback is expected to be at full strength Saturday against the Buckeyes.
“Last week we weren’t sure,” Franklin said. “We were kind of trying to see where he was going to be at. Sean is much further ahead now to being back to 100%. ... We expect to have a 100% Sean Clifford this weekend.”
Clifford’s health took plenty of the blame for the team’s loss to Illinois, but it was hardly the only reason the team couldn’t get the job done. The run defense struggled, the rushing offense struggled and the team was unable to get any type of momentum.
The team’s failures piled up in a way that made it difficult for Penn State to win, but not impossible. Still, Illinois took advantage and took home the upset victory, leaving Penn State’s program enshrouded with questions.
The team’s immediate future came into question. Is this team as good as its start indicated? Could it really fall to 7-5 after starting 5-0?
While those questions were valid, they weren’t the most impactful ones being asked. Those questions surrounded the program’s future — and Franklin’s future after he has been connected to the vacancies at LSU and USC — and what comes next after the team’s chances of making the College Football Playoff were dashed.
Those questions remain unanswered.
Barring a massive upset over the Buckeyes in Columbus, they’ll remain that way until the season comes to a close.
