Franklin Ready for Season Amidst Challenges of COVID-19

Story posted October 14, 2020 in CommRadio, Sports by Andrew Field

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State head coach James Franklin took to Zoom on Wednesday night, as he met with the media to discuss the progression of the team in training camp with the first game of the season rapidly approaching.

“We’ve gotten into a good routine now,” Franklin said when asked about getting back to practice.

The team was limited throughout the past couple months with split practices. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted the amount of hours each week the team was allowed to participate in drills, but Franklin found positives out of the limited time.

“There were some benefits to that,” Franklin said. “We got a chance to work with the freshmen and the transfers longer, and they got more reps than they normally would.”

Franklin stressed that a few of those players would potentially factor in more than in years past.

However, there have been downsides to not being able to have the team and staff fully together. A case in point, Franklin hasn’t even met new defensive line coach John Scott’s wife and children face to face yet.

Now, with Alabama head coach Nick Saban testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and the Florida-LSU game being postponed due to positive cases in the Florida football program, Franklin continues to relay the message to his staff and team to be as safe as possible.

“We can’t get complacent with this, we can’t get casual with this because as soon as you do, it gets you,” Franklin said, “We’re doing the best job we possibly can to make this thing work.”

Penn State will kick off its season against Indiana in Bloomington at 3:30 p.m next Saturday.

 

Andrew Field is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email aaf5329@psu.edu.