There is plenty to distract James Franklin and his Penn State football team heading into their game Saturday against visiting Northwestern.
If Franklin would allow it.
To begin with, the Wildcats seem like easy prey, with a 1-2 record, a 10-point Vegas advantage, a 2-9 record since last Sept. 21 and a house divided by union activities.
At best, it’s a trap game. At worst…well, for Northwestern things couldn’t get much worse.
As for looking ahead, if Penn State defeats Northwestern on Homecoming Day in Beaver Stadium, Franklin’s squad is looking at the following:
A perfect 5-0 start, only its third since joining the Big Ten in 1993. Penn State’s first Top 25 ranking in 33 months. First place and at minimum a one-game lead in the Big Ten’s East Division. Just one victory away from a bowl game opportunity that popped up a few weeks ago. (Talk about distractions.)
There’s more:
A bye week. A road game at Michigan, against a .500 controversy-ridden Wolverine squad with a possible lame (much-bigger-than-a) duck head coach. Another bye week. The much-anticipated showdown with Braxton Millerless Ohio State in already-called-for Whiteout in Beaver Stadium on Oct. 25.
The Northwestern game is the fifth contest in a rollicking 29-game stretch that has given the Nittany Lions road games in Ireland and New Jersey, and kickoffs at noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Other than its first two years in the Big Ten (1993 and ’94), the last time Penn State had a bye week, game, bye week was in 1895.
As for Franklin, you know that first and foremost he is hitting the recruiting trail. He’s also looking at some serious unpacking of boxes (he and his family just moved into their home on Tuesday). A wedding to attend. A radio show break. And who knows, maybe a trip to Shippensburg next Saturday to see his beloved alma mater, East Stroudsburg, play in a PSAC clash, or a drive to the Poconos for a beverage and a pork roll at Rudy’s.
Pretty exciting stuff, all around.
THE FRANKLIN MINDSET
But looking ahead? Only if Franklin allows it to happen. But thus far he hasn’t and he likely won’t. And to be Frank(lin) with you, it’s not just coach speak.
“After every game, coach Franklin tells us, ‘This is the next opponent. This is who we’re focusing on,’” said receiver Geno Lewis after Penn State defeated Akron last Saturday. “It’s a one-game season every week. There’s not a game before that and there’s not a game after this week. That’s just a mindset we have.”
Lewis was just minding his coach. After nine months, we know that Franklin’s given to phrases like mind meld and Jedi Mind Tricks. It seems to be working. Lewis was reminded that it’s a 12-game season. Surely he’s seen the schedule and he knows who’s coming up next.
“Yeah, we know,” Lewis admitted. “But if you get caught up in the future and what could happen and could be, you don’t want to be disappointed if things don’t go your way.”
Jesse James toed the James Line as well on Saturday, when asked if he knew a bye week and Michigan and Ohio State awaited: “When we get there, we’ll see what happens. That’s ahead. I haven’t looked at that yet. I don’t pay too much attention to the schedule.”
Franklin readily deflects any questions about anything or anybody or any opponent beyond the immediate week. His mantra is Brady Bunch-like. And you thought Marcia, Marcia, Marcia was annoying.
Franklin, on Sept. 9: “I know you guys are going to ask me 55 questions that don’t have to do with Rutgers, but I would like to talk about Rutgers, Rutgers, Rutgers, Rutgers, and then maybe a little bit more about Rutgers. Probably not going to happen, though.”
Franklin, on Tuesday: “Northwestern, Northwestern, Northwestern, Northwestern and Northwestern. I have no idea what exists after Saturday’s game. It’s kind of like when we thought the earth was flat and it just falls off after that. I have no idea what happens.”
Franklin on Wednesday, when I asked him: “At previous institutions, what have you done in off-weeks, traditionally?”
He smiled and chuckled and said (here, at the 4:38 mark), “That’s a good way to ask the question. … I don’t have a problem answering that question. I haven’t gone over that with the players and I want them to kind of understand the schedule first before I put it out with the media. … I’ll go over that on Sunday with the players.”
You have to like his candor, on display in part because he was caught off-guard. But it did validate his continuing claims that he really does try to focus his team to do that clichéd-ridden one-game-at-a-time thing.
And hey, it’s not like we haven’t been warned.
HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH
On the Coaches Caravan trail in D.C. back in May, while talking with three beat writers, a sometime blogger and a stringer sitting in the very last row, Franklin shook his head and laughed when asked about the schedule beyond season-opening Central Florida.
“That’s going to be something that is going to drive you guys crazy,” he said, and little did we know that it truly would. “I will never — and no one in our program — will ever talk any other game. Except for the next game.
“A lot of coaches talk that way; we live it. And it’s going to drive you crazy, and I don’t mean any offense to anybody. I think that’s a big reason why we’ve been consistent, because a lot of coaches say this game is just as important as any other game, then they start talking about it: ‘When we win this game it’s going to make next week big.’ We don’t do that.
“There’s probably been a leveling of the field in college football more than there’s ever been. If don’t approach it that way that’s when you’re inconsistent and come out flat or the next week high. We want to be consistent. I think our approach is a big part of that. But I know it drives some media people crazy. For us, there are no rivalry games. Conference games are no more important than out-of-conference games. They’re important. The most important game for us is the next game.”
Here’s where it – actually, Franklin – gets a little tricky. He knows there’s a bye week after Northwestern, he knows when Penn State plays at Michigan that The Big House will be somewhat depleted and a bit deflated. The already dwindling student section will be even smaller because U-M students will be on fall break. Franklin knows that. He just doesn’t tell his players or the media and – ipso facto – the public.
His staff certainly knows, though.
BEAR OF AN IDEA
As a follow-up to his revelation in D.C., I told him that in his heyday Bear Bryant would assign each coach on the Alabama coaching staff a specific team, and that coach would follow that opponent all season. That coach was an in-house expert, who would set the table for scouting and game plans for each Tide foe.
It sounded familiar to Franklin.
“We do that,” Franklin said of his staff of Ivy Leaguers, former engineers and economics majors. “Each coaching staff member on offense and defense will have three games that they’re following on the Internet. They’re printing out articles, things like that. So once that game comes, we’ve been following them all year. They know new hires that have been made, they know about injuries and anything else going on with the team. That’s from a preparation standpoint. That’s no different than breaking down the film ahead of time.”
That strategy – plan in advance internally, focus his players and externally in a singular week-by-week fashion – has fit so far.
And often, especially with the passing game and a stout defense that is the nation’s No. 1 unit against the run, those tactics have given the opposition fits as well.
Just don’t tell anyone.
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