It’s neither good or bad, but for the first time in a long time, Penn State football doesn’t have a major storyline heading into this week’s Big Ten media days.
The sanctions are essentially over in both reality and lingering impact, James Franklin isn’t entering his first season, and the Nittany Lions aren’t favored to win their division. Penn State is just another team.
Even with ongoing court cases, very few care about the latest news surrounding the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Even fewer see those ongoing cases as all that relevant to the current state of affairs inside the Lasch Building. Penn State is simply a middle of the pack Big Ten team. Rising? It appears so. But with Jim Harbaugh in the picture and Ohio State’s national title at the head of the table, there is little room for the Nittany Lions in the conversation as it pertains to a quick 48-hours in Chicago.
To be sure, it’s not that Penn State football is suddenly no longer interesting, but don’t expect it to be the big hit of the week. Frankly, the unknowns are just not all that exciting. National stories are rarely written about the offensive line of a 7-6 team, that’s simply the way it is.
Add in the fact that quarterback Christian Hackenberg isn’t even a part of the contingent making the trip to Chicago and your only possible marquee story will be seven hours away. As a result Anthony Zettel will take up the mantle as Penn State’s most interesting man of the hour, a player whose own probable NFL future is currently overshadowed by his afinity for tackling trees.
All of this will make for an intriguing or simply straightforward Friday for Franklin. If he wants to steal the show it will come during his mid morning press conference Friday or with some particularly interesting quotes at roundtable sessions that afternoon.
In both cases he will have to deal with the obligatory questions about Hackeneberg’s future to which he will continue to largely decline to comment on it specifically. The more times Franklin says “We’re focused on Temple, Temple, Temple, Temple.” the less likely this week is going to have been a productive one for those involved.
That being said, if anyone can turn an otherwise pedestrian week into a a newsworthy set of appearances it’s Franklin. The question is more if he wants to do it than if he can. It doesn’t take long to see that like most coaches, Franklin is focused on one thing right now, and that’s football.
But in its own way, the absence of storylines is the best “problem” Penn State has had to deal with in a while. And at this point, the Nittany Lions are more worried about winning games than press conferences.
