James Franklin, Penn State seeking 'a way to get back on track'

At 0-5, Penn State’s football team has done nothing but lose this season.

But that doesn’t mean coach James Franklin has lost his team. At least not based on his observations.

“I look at how we’ve played in games,” Franklin said during a video conference with media Tuesday. “We’ve given ourselves a chance to win some games in the second half by how we’ve battled and competed. …. I look at how we’ve been practicing. I look at us late in games. Obviously, there’s disappointment. Obviously, there’s frustration. But I see how our guys are in the locker room after the game. I see how our guys are in practice. And I see how our guys have competed late in games.”

With three games remaining, Penn State will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2004. Regardless, Franklin professes optimism in how his players have dealt with disappointing results.

“I’m not saying there’s not frustration or disappointment, but I see the guys really trying to do what we’ve asked and they’re sticking together,” Franklin said.

“We’re going to have to stick together to work through this. We’re not the first program that has faced this. We won’t be the last program that has faced this. But we’re going to get it fixed.”

A winless season would be a miserable experience under any circumstance, but the idea of enduring one during a worldwide pandemic in which players are segregated from fellow students and even family for quarantine purposes has made the season even more daunting for Penn State.

“It’s a very different dynamic,” Franklin said. “It’s something that I know that I’m aware of. It’s something that our staff is aware of. … We’ve gotten into a pretty good routine with (coronavirus). Coming into the year, that was my No. 1 priority, to make sure we kept everybody as healthy and safe as we possibly could. But yeah, the whole thing has been very surreal and obviously challenging.

“This has been a tough year. Take football out of it. This has been a tough year on a lot of people and their families from a health perspective, from a financial perspective and obviously, their college experience has been very different. Stay positive, keep working through, keep loving these guys, keep supporting these guys and remind everybody why we do this.”

Entering the season, Penn State was a viewed as a contender for the Big Ten title and the NCAA’s postseason tournament. Clearly, the program has fallen well short of those lofty goals.

“Whenever you have challenges like this, it creates work,” Franklin said. “It creates things that you’re going to have to work through. Coming into this this season before all of the dynamics changes, I think everybody would agree that things were really going pretty well. Obviously, we have a challenge right now. We have adversity, and life is about handling adversity. And sports is about handling adversity. That’s what we’re going to have to do. There’s no other option. Find a way to get better today and find a way to get back on track.”