Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Franklin not easing up on PSU’s COVID protocols
About a week before the season opener, Penn State football coach James Franklin won’t allow the Nittany Lions to become less vigilant about following coronavirus protocols.
Although Penn State has been relatively unaffected, Franklin has seen 30 Football Bowl Subdivision games altered by COVID-19. He’s seen Alabama’s Nick Saban, the highest-profile coach in college football, test positive this week.
That explains why Franklin continues to be, as he called himself in August, a “mother hen” around Penn State’s football facilities.
“I drive everybody crazy,” he said this week. “I’m the nag all day long in the office. I’m the nag all day long at practice. And then I get mad at the other personnel on the field because I need some help in making sure that we’re all doing it.”
All BigTen football teams, includingPennState, areundergoing daily antigen testing, one of the chief reasons why the conference presidents reversed an original postponement and decided to proceed with an abbreviated season. That can limit the spread of the coronavirus, but it can’t eradicate it.
“We’ve been told from friends intheNFLthat as soon as everyday testing started, people felt that covered everything,” Franklin said. “It’s just another layer of protection.”
In order to stay safe, Penn State players, coaches, trainers and staffers are policing each other. Franklin is running the program, but he’s not the only one reminding folks to wear masks, maintain social distancing and wash hands.
“People are holding each other accountablewithin the building, making sure that we’re being sanitary, keeping our distance and what not,” safetyJonathanSutherland said. “Guys are holding each other accountable outside the facility by not going out and not doing anything that would jeopardize our team or what not.
“That’s beenworking very well for all of us.”
Backup offensive lineman Des Holmes (Cardinal O’Hara All-Delco) said it comes tobeingunselfishand considering the greater good. If a Big Ten football player tests positive, he can’t play for at least 21 days.
“It’s about sacrifice,” Holmes said. “This is a year where you can’tmess around with this COVID stuff. Everybody needs to be as safe as possible, quarantine the way they’re supposed to and make responsible decisions for the team.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the team. It’s not about the individuals, so you have to make sacrifices for everybody.”
Franklin has become so accustomed to wearing a mask, he sometimes forgets he’s wearing one even when alone in his office. That is, until his glasses fog, a problem for many.
“If any of you guys (in the media) can come up with a way to help with that, that’s my issue,” he said. “In practice the other day I kind of lostmy stuffandwas screaming. I couldn’t even see who
I was screaming at because my glasses were all fogged up and I looked like an idiot.”
Several Penn State teams
had to suspend workouts in September because of a spike in cases, but footballwas not among them.