Brats, Beers and Boos: James Franklin Can't Wait for Wisconsin
On the road to becoming Penn State's head coach, James Franklin spent a year with the Green Bay Packers, where he learned about devotion to team.
Heading to practice one day — he vaguely remembers it being a Thursday — Franklin met some Packers fans, who were grilling bratwursts and drinking beer, outside the team facility.
What are you guys doing? Franklin asked.
"Getting ready for the game," they responded.
Franklin recalled that moment with joy this week, as he prepares Penn State to visit No. 12 Wisconsin on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium. The visit will be a first for Franklin and his players, since the Lions have not played at Wisconsin since 2013, when they won as a 24-point underdog.
For Franklin, who has joked on occasion about missing the boos of opposing fans, the scene he envisions at Camp Randall is one he hopes will be a welcome restorative.
"I think there will be some brats and beers and I think there will be some boos," Franklin said. "But I also think there's going to be a bunch of cheers, because people have missed college football. People have missed getting together as a community, and I think that's one of the things that's great about college football. It brings people together, I think, like nothing else."
Franklin spent the 2020 season doing his best to handle the necessary quiet of college football. Penn State entertained nearly 3 million fans in the four seasons prior to 2020, averaging about 732,000 per season. Last year, the program listed its total attendance for five home games at 4,500, an estimate that included the teams, a trimmed-down collection of gameday personnel and a smattering of family members.
Now, Penn State will begin the 2021 season at Camp Randall, Wisconsin's 80,000-seat venue that is considered among the nation's loudest. According to Wisconsin, tickets remain available for the game, which the program is calling a "Stripe Out."
Franklin said he doesn't typically employ a game countdown clock during the offseason but did this year because Wisconsin is "not a normal first opponent." Penn State is opening a season with a Big Ten road game for the first time since 1993 (last year's conference-only schedule notwithstanding).
Last Saturday, Penn State scrimmaged at 11 am EST, mirroring the kickoff time in Madison, and the deafening practice music has returned to its facility. The program still faces some complications regarding travel (who rooms together at the team hotel, for instance), but the energy level is high.
In fact, Franklin said that, after last Saturday's scrimmage, players and coaches stuck around to watch some of the Nebraska-Illinois game on the big screen.
"There’s still a lot to navigate," Franklin said. "... There's still a lot of things we're all doing to try to navigate this in the best way we possibly can. But I will tell you, even with that, there's just so much excitement."
And with that comes more opportunity to coach. Penn State has not played a true road game in a full stadium since its November 2019 visit to Ohio State.
Receiver Jahan Dotson was reminded of this recently while walking on campus with teammates Parker Washington, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Winston Eubanks, who haven't played before any large crowds in their Penn State careers.
"I was telling them, coach Franklin preaches to us all the time that you’re going to resort back to your training when things go south," Dotson said. "That couldn’t be more true. When you’re in those big moments, in those big games and the crowd’s going crazy, and your mind is racing, what you’re going to do is what you’ve been training to do all camp, all offseason and all your life."
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