James Franklin: 'I’m Confident that We’re Going to Find a Way to Make This Thing Work.'

The Penn State coach addressed concerns of those players and parents uneasy about returning.

Before Penn State announced that players could return this week, defensive tackle PJ Mustipher likely spoke on behalf of most teammates.

“The day they do announce whenever we can go back, I might run back, I might not even drive back," Mustipher said last week. "That's how happy I am to be back with my guys."

Penn State football players are on campus again, nearly three months after it was shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 75 players were eligible to return this week and, after a testing and quarantine period, can resume voluntary workouts June 15.

As Mustipher said, most were eager to return. But what everyone wasn't ready? Penn State coach James Franklin addressed the possibility, calling it something for which he has planned.

“I think there’s going to be 90 percent of our team, when we say, ‘Hey, it’s cleared and you’re able to come back,’ they are going to run back,” Franklin said on a recent video call with reporters. “Literally, we’re having conversations with a lot of our guys that they can’t come back, they’re wanting to come back. … But there’s also going to be 10 percent that aren’t comfortable coming back, or their families aren’t comfortable with them coming back.

"And that’s fine. If you’re not comfortable coming back, and you want to stay at home, then we’re supportive.”

Though reopening college campuses, and their attendant athletic facilities, is a large-scale process, Franklin said he is sensitive to the array of complex individual decisions that must occur as well. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted his home: Franklin and his family spent the shutdown largely at home, seeking to shelter daughter Addison, who has Sickle cell anemia, from compromising her immune system.

As a result, he understands that some players lived in unique situations as well. Some slept on couches or had difficulty finding consistent places to study. For them, campus might offer a better situation.

But, as Franklin said, other players might be uneasy returning to shared living environments, with players returning from regions more affected than others.

“At the end of the say, it’s about what’s in the student-athletes’ best interests, and what they’re comfortable with and what their families are comfortable with,” Franklin said. “… That’s why there are so many models being looked at.”

Franklin added that his program relied on medically based decision-making that prioritized player safety but also took into account other impacts of resuming football drills.

“I’m a believer in science,” Franklin said. “I’m a believer in medicine and listening to the experts, so I think our decisions have to be based on that. … No. 1: What are the experts saying, what are the scientists saying, what are the doctors saying? What can we do to create the best, safest, healthiest environment that we possibly can?

“And then the second part of this is we all realize there is an economic part of this as well. And for us to act like there’s not economic part of this is not being transparent. But it had better go in that order. I know how important football is not just to our football program but to this university and this community and the businesses and all the people in the state of Pennsylvania. I know what football does across the country from that perspective. I’m confident that we’re going to find a way to make this thing work.”