James Franklin and about thirty dozen of his closest friends got together in Holuba Hall on Saturday morning. It was Practice Five of Penn State’s 2015 spring football season. But Job One for Franklin was about a half-dozen things. All were part of Penn State football. And Franklin was in the middle of them all -- equal parts CEO, coach, recruiter, cheerleader, spokesman, and even manager.
James Franklin DM’s at 4:57. As in 4:57 a.m. He flies to Boston and back. In an afternoon. He drives to the Lehigh Valley for a Sunday afternoon football banquet and back. In a day. In a snowstorm. For five hours. One way. (Although I’m not sure how much of it was uphill.) Time waits for no man. But it does allow James to ride shotgun.
There’s only so much you can get done from inside a classroom. Penn State professor Khanjan Mehta knows this, and so do his students in the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) program. That’s why they’re taking their skills out of the classroom and all the way to the African country of Zambia.
Penn State football lost DB Kasey Gaines, but the departure proved that this team is past depth issues.
This really isn't fair. Nobody has seen a play yet this season. Not in practice, not at the Blue White game. There is nothing tangible beyond a roster and a schedule to work with. But one of the offseason's great traditions is trying to predict how the upcoming season will go.
From de facto offensive coordinator to scapegoat, Christian Hackenberg needs to shed hats to succeed. At practice on Saturday, he wore one hat, that of an elite level athlete. And in a perfect world, that's the only hat anyone in his corner wants him wearing.