(93.7 The Fan) - Penn State coach James Franklin says getting players back on campus and preparing for a season, let alone playing one, is a lot more complicated than people realize.
During a video conference Wednesday, Franklin addressed the uncertainty created by the pandemic and its impact on college football and his Nittany Lions players. As a coach, there's only so much he can say or do.
"I think as a leader you're trying to give everybody the vision and the plan, but it's just so hard to do that right now when there is no much uncertainty," Franklin said.
His game plan for a season is based on science first.
'I'm a believer in medicine and listening to the experts," Frankin said. "Our decisions have to be based on that. What are the experts saying, the scientists, what are the doctors saying? What can we do to create the best, safest, healthiest environment we possibly can? We all realize there's an economic part of this, as well. For us to act like there's not an economic part of this would not be transparent, but it better go in that order. It better go in health and welfare and science-based first."
Franklin said he's confident they can find a way to play the season. He also acknowledged that once players are allowed to return not all will be in favor of doing so.
"I think there's going to be 90 percent of our team when they can come back, they are going to run back," Franklin said. "But there's also going to be ten percent--maybe a little higher or a little lower--that aren't comfortable coming back or their families aren't comfortable with them coming back, and that's fine. We have to have to some overarching guidelines that are based on science and the health and welfare of our student-athletes. We can make a lot of models work, but we have to be flexible and open to doing that."
Franklin said almost every aspect of a player's football day will be different, from dealing with the medical staff and getting treatment to team meetings.
"If you meet with all your quarterbacks at the same time and they all get sick you don't have a healthy quarterback. Now, you have to break up your quarterback meetings, as well. That's what I'm saying. This is a lot more complicated than I think a lot of people are looking at it."
Franklin said flexibility is the key to making things work.
"That could be a shortened season, a full season, a full season with no fans, a full season with partial fans," Franklin said. "We just need to have an open mind to whatever this is going to look like and go back and trust the experts. Nothing with this is normal."