We don’t know when football will be back. No matter how badly we want to watch the game, it won’t happen until it’s right.
What we want to happen doesn’t matter. It’s OK to be optimistic, but it’s essential to be realistic. There are too many people trying to guess what might happen, but Penn State football coach James Franklin isn’t one of them.
Franklin expressed a healthy blend of confidence that there will be a season with an acknowledgment of the challenges of the future Wednesday.
“I’m a believer in science. I’m a believer in medicine and listening to the experts,” Franklin told reporters via Zoom. “What are the experts, the scientists, and the doctors saying and what we can (do) to create the best, safest, healthiest environment we possibly can?”
Franklin conveyed the optimism of the majority of his players during the second video meeting with reporters since COVID-19 shut down the campus.
“I’d say about 90 percent of the guys are going to run back,” Franklin said. “They want to come back. A lot of these guys have gone back to very different situations at home.”
The last sentence is critical. Some players are itching to get back to campus, but there is also a group that will be more cautious.
“There’s also going to be the 10 percent, maybe a little higher or maybe a little lower, that aren’t comfortable coming back,” Franklin said. “That’s fine. If you’re not comfortable coming back and you want to stay at home, then we’re supportive.”
Franklin extended his flexibility on the timetable to start preparing. As someone who played college football at East Stroudsburg as the starting quarterback in 1993 and 1994, Franklin believes that if the rubber met the road, today’s players could turn the clock back to the ’90s.
“When I played college football, you weren’t there all summer. You were at home working out on your own,” Franklin said. “You’d show up and be in a training camp for three weeks or a month. Then you’d go and play.
“You can definitely do it in under six weeks. I think you can do it in a month because that’s how it was always run before.”
The idea of playing college football games without fans is complicated. Fans would welcome having live games to watch. If people watch the Korean Baseball Organization games with players and teams they’ve never heard of into the wee hours of the morning, then they’ll indeed watch the Nittany Lions battle their rivals.
“I’m open and flexible to doing whatever we can possibly do to make it work, Franklin said. “If we don’t make it work, there are going to be major impacts across the board.”
It’s also fair to ask that if it isn’t safe for fans to watch in person, is it safe for there to be 100 players, about 20 coaches, support staff, and referees on the field? It’s an intricate dance and Franklin did his best to convey the complexity.
“We could have a shortened season,” Franklin said. “We could have a full season without fans. It could be a season with partial fans. We’re studying all of those things. We have to trust the experts.”
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