Safety at heart of plans to return
Penn State football coach James Franklin said Wednesday he’s confident that there will be a college football season in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
During a video conference with Penn State and national reporters, Franklin said protecting the health of the students, including football players, will be the overriding factor.
“I’m confident that we’re going to find a way to make this thing work,” Franklin said. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to find a way to make this thing work, but not at the expense of what’s in the best interests of the safety and welfare of our students.”
He said he and Penn State director of athletics Sandy Barbour are keeping their minds open to the multiple options being discussed.
“I’m open and flexible to doing whatever we possibly can to make it work,” Franklin said. “If we don’t make it work, there are going to be major impacts across the board.
“That could be a shortened season. That could be a full season with no fans. That could be a season with partial fans. We’re studying all of those things. We have to trust the experts.”
Early last month, Barbour said it would take at least 60 days for
Penn State football players to prepare for a season. Franklin, however, disagreed Wednesday, saying the time could be a lot shorter.
“The model that most people are talking about is a six-week model that would be ideal,” he said. “(But) when I played college football (at East Stroudsburg in the early 1990s) you weren’t there all summer. You were at home working out on your own. You’d show up and be in training camp for three weeks or a month and 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.”
Penn State has had remote learning since March because of the coronavirus pandemic and has it scheduled through its second summer session to Aug. 14. The university has said campus can be reopened sooner for classroom learning if circumstances change.
Franklin estimated about 90% of Penn State football players are eager to return to campus.
“They’re going to run back,” he said. “They want to come back. A lot of these guys have gone back to very different situations at home. We have players from all different backgrounds.
“There’s also going to be 10%, maybe a little higher or maybe a little lower, that aren’t comfortable coming back or their families aren’t comfortable with them coming back. That’s fine. If you’re not comfortable coming back and you want to stay at home, then we’re supportive.”
Franklin said once students, including athletes, are allowed to return to campus, pre-testing and testing them will be important and will take considerable time.
“Testing is going to be critical,” he said. “There has to be as much pre-testing as we possibly can. ‘Where have you been? Where have you traveled? Any illness? Any people you’ve been around who have been affected?’
“Once we all get back on campus, we’re going to have to continue to do the testing throughout the season and throughout the semester.”
Physical examinations will take longer because the Penn State medical staff won’t be able to herd the roughly 120 players through them. Trainers and doctors will have to perform the physicals in small groups, which will take more time.
“There are a lot of things that have to be discussed and decided,” Franklin said. “Just the transition from them being at home to getting back to a point where you can meet and practice, it’s going to take a lot more time than it normally does.”
Unless the landscape changes, Penn State won’t be able to hold team meetings in the Lasch Building auditorium or offensive and defensive meetings. Everything will have to be in small groups.
“If you meet with all your quarterbacks at the same time and they all get sick, you don’t have a healthy quarterback,” Franklin said. “So now you’re going to have to break up your quarterback meetings as well as where you separate them.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to make sure that the student-athletes are healthy, and that goes the same for the staff.”