Franklin frustrated over Big Ten’s decision to postpone fall sports
Penn State football coach James Franklin made it clear Wednesday that he continues to be disappointed and frustrated over the Big Ten’s decision to postpone fall sports to the spring semester.
In his first press conference with Penn State beat reporters since May, Franklin remains unhappy that players, coaches and parents still don’t know exactly why conference presidents and chancellors made their decision and still don’t have many answers moving forward.
“How we got to this decision, I’m not in position to answer that because I wasn’t in the room,” Franklin said during a video conference. “But I do know when you make a decision of this magnitude, that affects so many people on such a significant level and it’s maybe the most important decision in the history of the Big Ten, it wasn’t made in ambiguity (and) it wasn’t vague.
“And that there’s no way we made this decision without everybody being clear on what the decision was.”
Franklin might have been referring to Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, who announced on Aug. 11 that the conference was postponing football and other fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That announcement came six days after the Big Ten rolled out a revised football schedule, which included 10 conference games for each team. Reports began to surface three days later that the conference was moving towards postponement.
“I don’t really have an issue with the decision,” Franklin said, “because at the end of the day we made a decision based on what we thought was in the student-athletes’ best interests from a health and welfare standpoint. Everybody understands the magnitude of the decision.
“But I think, as I’ve stated before, my issue has been the process and timing of it, not necessarily with the actual decision that was made.”
Franklin said he was not satisfied with the communication between the Big Ten office and Penn State, especially leading up to the decision.
“When the decision was actually being made, it caught a lot of people off guard,” he said. “Because at that time, we felt like things were going pretty good. We felt like we were going to be able to make this thing work and things changed quickly.
“That’s where the frustration comes from. ..When things started to swing in the wrong direction, that’s when there wasn’t a whole lot of communication.”
Franklin said the most difficult thing for him was to tell Penn State players that there would be no fall season.
“Witnessing the confusion on our guys’ faces when I shared the news of the postponement last week was gut-wrenching,” he said. “It is my responsibility to help guys chase their dreams and delivering the news felt like I was doing the opposite. I felt like I was taking away their dream to play at Penn State, even if for some it’s only temporary.
“We’re heartbroken for our student-athletes because of how much they sacrificed to put themselves in position to compete at the highest level. But now they’re left frustrated and unsure of what the future holds.”
Franklin, who’s in Florida with his family, will return to campus soon. Since last week’s announcement, many players have returned to their homes. They’ll return to campus for the beginning of the fall semester next week and will have to quarantine and receive a COVID-19 test.
Franklin said Penn State had an effective plan to combat the spread of the coronavirus. No players, coaches, trainers or any other other staff member tested positive after the first week of practices.
“I felt like a mother hen,” he said. “I spent the entire day walking around the office and telling people to cover their face up completely or they were going to be sent home. I spent the entire day at practice running around the field telling guys to slide up their mask and to spread out as much as they possibly could.”
Franklin will now plan for a season that he hopes begins in the winter and not the spring.
“The later you go into the year, that’s going to start to impact the following season (in the fall of 2021),” he said. “It’s going to have an impact in terms of too many games in too short a period of time, in terms of injury prevention and the right amount of training.
“How are you going to handle incoming recruits? How are you going to handle rosters? How many guys are going to end up playing? How many guys are going to opt out? All these things have got to be tied together to make it work effectively and efficiently for as many as possible.”