There is a lot going on these days if you’re Penn State. Well, if you’re anyone really.
Last Saturday the Nittany Lions lost an emotional game to Indiana. They traveled back home in time to hit the practice field. Then they found out running back Noah Cain was set to miss the rest of the season, joining former No. 1 back Journey Brown on the unofficial disabled list.
Oh, and then there’s this upcoming Saturday, a date with Ohio State. Win and it’s a huge upset, lose and you’re 0-2 to start off the year and almost certainly your season will end without a trip to the playoffs or a trip to the Big Ten title game.
And then there is next Tuesday and that small matter of a Presidential Election, one of the most consequential of our collective lifetimes.
So yea, you could say things have been busy around the Lasch Building.
“Yeah, to be honest with you that’s a little bit 2020 for everybody right,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week. “It has been a lot of things to manage other than school and football. There have been a lot of other things going on, you know in our country, and a lot of other things going on in our communities. You got health issues, and obviously we’re not even talking about personal issues that people are dealing with.”
The result is a unique period of time to coaching and leading over a hundred college athletes. As the real world and sports have begun to more openly merge, it becomes harder and harder to escape the stresses of social and personal issues going on outside the lines. Penn State now takes the field in an equality focused warmup shirt with a similar patch on its jersey.
These are good things, but also a taxing reminder that nothing about this year has been easy, nor that the turning of the calendar from 2020 to 2021 will make those issues go away. Despite the crossover between the world and sports, Franklin is hopeful that hitting the field can still be that escape where you can put away your stress and just play the game you love.
“It’s just a lot of things and I hope that football is a little bit of a safe haven for our guys that they’re able to kind of step away from all those things and step on the field and focus but it’s just been very different.” Franklin added.
Of course, if there was ever a year to pack a high loss, a high profile game and an election all in the same week it would be this one. And as quarterback Sean Clifford noted with a laugh, this is business as usual these days.
“I think it has kind of been like this the whole year,” Clifford said with a smile. “So if you made it to this point, you’re kind of battle tested.”
Ain’t that the truth.
