INDIANAPOLIS — The way James Franklin sees it, this week of practice for Penn State wasn’t any different than the one that preceded it. Or the one before that, or the one before that.
With the exception of the soundtrack.
“We've been playing Wisconsin's fight song and ‘Jump Around’ at every practice,” Franklin said. “That's really the only change in the things that we've done this week compared to last week.”
Even as buzz and momentum have built around Franklin’s Nittany Lions team over the past six weeks — since their upset win against No. 2 Ohio State — Franklin has kept his players laser-focused on the immediate competition in front of them.
This week, that means the No. 6 Badgers. And, even if the No. 8 Nittany Lions’ preparation for the Big Ten championship game is no different, the stage, the reward and the potential consequences certainly are.
“We talked about the Big Ten championship before the season started, never really talked about it after that,” Franklin said. “We didn’t talk about it this season because it falls in line with kind of how we do things, which is one game at a time. At the end of this game, we'll decide who the Big Ten champion is.”
If Franklin stopped talking about a Big Ten title once the season started, most fans likely followed suit a few weeks later after Penn State took a 49-10 beating from Michigan Sept. 24.
From that point on, though, the Nittany Lions just kept racking up one win at a time, and finally punched their ticket here last week when they finished off Michigan State.
Franklin said he didn’t let the thought of playing for a Big Ten title creep into his mind until midway through the game last week against the Spartans. As Penn State got ready to run a third-down play midway through the first quarter, the crowd at Beaver Stadium erupted with the news that Ohio State had beaten Michigan, paving the way for the Nittany Lions to win and secure their spot in the Big Ten title game.
“[Quarterback] Trace [McSorely] looked at me on the sideline and said, ‘What's going on?’” Franklin recalled. “I said, ‘I assume that Ohio State just won.’
“To be honest with you, until today, seeing this trophy — which is really cool sitting here — it probably still hadn't kind of hit home yet.”
In a similar vein, Franklin brushed aside any talk of potential College Football Playoff scenarios Friday. If the Nittany Lions — currently No. 7 in the playoff committee’s rankings — win tonight, they’d likely be in the mix for one of the top four spots.
“We're really excited about having the opportunity to play for a Big Ten championship,” Franklin said. “After that, whatever happens, we will be very appreciative and blessed for whatever opportunity we get.”
Of course, a Big Ten championship in itself would be quite the accomplishment for a coach that entered the year with questions about his job security and a program four years removed from NCAA sanctions stemming from the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal.
Those sanctions, many of which were later rolled back, initially were expected to cripple the program long-term. Franklin, though, has the Nittany Lions on the doorstep of their fourth Big Ten title, and first since 2008.
“How long it was going to take us to get to one of these games, I did not have a number on it,” Franklin said. “Obviously, we walked into an interesting situation, probably one of the more interesting situations in college football history.”
It was a rare moment during Franklin’s news conference Friday when he allowed himself to reflect on the big picture. As it has been all season, Franklin’s focus was on just one objective. But this time it wasn’t necessarily an opponent. It was the Big Ten championship trophy sitting next to him.
“To have the chance to play for the Big Ten championship is a tremendous honor on its own,” he said. “To find a way to win this game, to be able to take this bad boy back to State College, it would be awesome.”
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG.
First Published: December 3, 2016, 5:44 a.m.
