There is a lot of confidence with the Penn State Nittany Lions after they managed to grind their way to a win over Wisconsin to start the season in Week 1. And with a big game everyone is looking forward to coming up in Week 3 against the Auburn Tigers, a Week 2 matchup against BNall State could be the perfect recipe for a trap game situation.
Penn State head coach James Franklin has developed a strategy to stay focused on each game as they come, but that message must be sent even more loud and clear to his team this weekend.
“I do believe in trap games if you’re sending mix messages,” Franklin said during his Tuesday press availability. “It’s subtle things that people pick up on. So, I try to make sure that we don’t do that and that message is consistent, so whether they go down and they’re getting gear from our equipment people, that there is no cracks in it. There is consistency. Same thing in the training room. Same with our coaches and staff and so on.
Penn State’s “1-0” mentality really became visible to the fans in 2016 when the Big Ten results were beginning to pave a potential path for Penn State to play for the Big Ten championship. Following Penn State’s upset victory over Ohio State in 2016, Franklin took to Twitter to stress how much his program needed to focus only on the next game on the schedule and let the rest of the pieces fall into place as they would. To this day, Franklin puts out a message on Twitter every week to dial in on that particular opponent for the upcoming week. This week has been no exception.
1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 #WeAre
— James Franklin (@coachjfranklin) September 5, 2021
“Really the message hasn’t changed,” Franklin explained this week. “In the past, I would say Wisconsin 75 times and Ball State 75 times because the message was about our entire focus needs to be on this game, this opponent, and being 1-0.”
We shall see if Penn State is not overlooking Ball State.
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