This week the stage is bigger than usual. Even with #107KStrong as the norm, there are more eyes than usual too.
That was no more evident then when James Franklin and Boston College coach Steve Addazio fielded a question in Spanish about the growing involvement of latino players’ in football.
True to form though, Franklin turned his response into a recruiting pitch.
“If you know of anybody who is interested in Penn State, whether they’re latino or of any other descent please send them our way. We’re always recruiting and we’re always looking for people who can make an impact in the classroom and on the field.” Franklin said at the end of a much longer answer.
For both Franklin and Addazio it was one more step in the bowl process. There isn’t a question — aside from the one noted above — that they haven’t answered about their teams. There isn’t an angle about their teams that hasn’t been written. So as both coaches sat inside the Yankee Stadium media room on Friday they smiled and went through the motions one more time.
“To start the season in Dublin, Ireland and then to finish up in New York City over Christmas has been first rate.” Franklin said.
“I think obviously having an opportunity to get back to bowl games has been very very important for us moving forward. The extra practices and the expectations. For us the emotions are about getting to keep the family together, that’s what the bowls are about for us. We’re a family. For us maybe it’s a little more significant for those seniors who have been through so much and have seen so much.”
The tone doesn’t change for Addazio either. In many ways he and Franklin are on similar paths headed toward what they hope are similar successes. Two programs looking to build. Two programs looking to take that next step.
“The goal last year was to get to a bowl,” Addazio said. “We did that. But we’re here now, we’re here to win these. They’re launching pads.”
“I’m always studying things about different organizations, the Yankees, BC, all week long,” Franklin said. “I looked at their season and what they did. … One of the biggest differences between our two programs right now is, they had five starting, graduated seniors on the offensive line with over 140 starts. I think coming into the season, we had one returning starter with 20 starts,” he said. “So that was one of the biggest differences that I noticed right away.”
Penn State enters Saturday’s game in unfamiliar waters. There are no players on this team who have ever won a bowl — no players to lean on the success of previous postseasons. It’s all so new, but for a roster full of players who have seen it all, a bowl game at an unconventional stadium won’t have been the biggest obstacle they have faced.
And after a week full of pomp and circumstance and a season full of ups and downs, both teams are hours from finally playing football again.
“We haven’t announced this yet,” A Yankee media relations worker said prior to the press conference, “But there will be a short pregame press conference tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 prior to the game.”
Because, of course, the biggest question left to ask at this point: Who is going to win?
And in the Big Apple, on the big stage, the only way to answer that question is to play the game.
