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Coming off his first losing season at Penn State, head coach James Franklin knew he had to confront what happened last fall as he arrived in Indianapolis for Big Ten media day. On Thursday, Franklin didn’t shy away from the setbacks of a season ago. But he also stressed how enthusiastic he is about what comes next for his program in 2021.
“You better grow, you better evolve and you better not say that we’re going to go back to normal because there are so unbelievable lessons that we learned through this,” Franklin said, reflecting on the tough 2020 season. “And we better learn from this and we better grow from the experience.”
Penn State struggled their way to an unprecedented 0-5 start to the regular season, which was pushed back by the Big Ten until late October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Player availability and having to coach and have team meetings without face-to-face contact, with a mask, or simply through Zoom was nothing any coach had ever done before last year. Penn State’s head coach admits his program struggled to adapt to the new set of unique challenges. But Penn State did manage to end the year on a four-game winning streak, suggesting some of those problems were solved along the way.
“At the end of the season, we were able to get back to doing things in a way that we are accustomed to doing, but we did learn from great things going through early in the season and taking some of those challenges and some of those obstacles and adversity and grow from it and learn from it as well,” Franklin explained. “I think we’ll be better for it. It was painful on all of us, but I’m excited about where we’re heading and what we’re going to do this year.”
Penn State is certainly enjoying getting back to normal. The Nittany Lions are crushing it on the recruiting trail and have been picked to finish in second place in the Big Ten East behind Ohio State.
Penn State opens the 2021 season on the road against Wisconsin on Sept. 4, and Franklin says his team is already focused on the first game of the season.
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