In the final news conference of Penn State’s Coaches Caravan tour James Franklin was thrown maybe the oddest assortment of questions.
Do you talk to Christian Hackenberg’s parents frequently? (It stands to reason, that yes, he does.)
What questions have you been asked the most by fans? (Summer football camps, Hackenberg, and five home games in a row.)
It was an odd scene for an event that has otherwise been a polite balance of insight and positive PR. Nobody is going to win a Pulitzer for covering the caravan, but you might get a better idea of how the program operates. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.
But by the end there is nothing left to say.
To be sure, the caravan isn’t about keeping the media happy. The interviews are a requirement of making public appearances, but the caravan isn’t happening for the sake of repetitive interviews. Even so, as fans made their way into the final event in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday night it felt very much like the final stop on the tour. Everyone is tired and everyone is ready to get back to work.
It was telling that the fourth year of the tour was several stops shorter than it was in year one under Franklin. The fundraising and the pep rally atmosphere is important. That kind of thing has helped keep a fractured Penn State community on the same page.
But at some point the money doesn’t substitute for preparation and it doesn’t make up for the hard work needed to actually win the games everyone spent the past three weeks talking about winning.
Penn State women’s volleyball coach Russ Rose acknowledge this on the tour’s final day in his own way, mentioning that former coach Bill O’Brien never loved the caravan, but understood its importance. At the end of the day, both Rose and O’Brien find themselves most comfortable in the office working on their game plans. And for as much as Franklin is seen as something other than strictly a football coach (fair or not), he too will be happy to get back to work.
And if James Franklin, a man who thrives in front of the camera, is happy to shorten the tour before it ever starts, then that’s a sign it has lasted just long enough.
Franklin and his roving band traveled back to State College on Thursday night and all of them will get back to working on what will really makes all of these caravan events worth the time and effort.
It will be another year before the custom Penn State bus pulls up to a hotel to spread the good word.
And judging by Thursday, everyone is okay having to wait.
