Blue White Illustrated

typically start with small, individual de- cisions to stray from the offense's framework. Those decisions can have ripple effects on any given play. Com- bine enough of those small, individual decisions through the course of a 60- minute game and, ultimately, you have an 0-5 football team. "If our count in the run game is a spe- cific person, and then they're blitzing another person off of the corner of your eye, and you're not responsible for them, then you can't block them. Be- cause maybe you're thinking that he's going to mess up the play, but he's really not because you've got another guy blocking him," Freiermuth said. "So we've got to make sure that we keep dis- cipline with our eyes, and we've got to keep discipline with the play so we can block and execute the right play. We've just got to go back and watch that on film, and we've just got to hold each other accountable. We can't do that. It's bad. It's bad football and it just looks stupid. So we've got to figure it out." Just as significant, maybe even more so, Penn State's defensive players have at times operated with the same mentality. Though their decisions have been moti- vated by a desire to help, the individual abandonment of basic principles crucial to the operation of the defense has cre- ated, not resolved, the group's issues this season. In taking stock of those lapses, defensive end Jayson Oweh said that now more than ever, it's important for players to trust that the system works when executed as designed. "They've shown that they've won Big Ten championships with it, they've won a lot of big games with the defense being stout. We can't just try to quit on the de- fense just because we're losing," Oweh said. "It's on the players. We've got to be more focused, buy in, and trust the sys- tem, because it's shown that it works." Safety Jonathan Sutherland agreed with that assessment. "When you start focusing on other people's jobs and mak- ing sure that if they don't do this then I've got to step up and do that, then you're not able to execute your job to the fullest," he said. "So, when all 11 guys on the field are trusting that the man next to him is doing his job, you can solely focus on doing your job to the greatest [of your ability]. If we have all 11 guys doing that, then we're going to be successful." With only a few games remaining, Penn State is past the point of salvaging anything competitively meaningful in the Big Ten this season. Its preseason goals have long since evaporated, and a losing record for the first time since 2004 is assured. Given the circum- stances, Penn State's immediate objec- tive should be to build trust, and the responsibility for doing that begins with head coach James Franklin and his staff. They must re-establish an unwavering faith that their direction is worthy. They've done it before. During Franklin's first two seasons in University Park, Penn State went 14-12. But players and recruits kept the faith, and the next four seasons were among the Lions' best since they joined the Big Ten in 1993. The onus now falls on current players to follow the lead of their predecessors. But the process has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is with Franklin himself. He needs to rekindle the sense of belief that permeated the program in recent years. It won't be easy to do that, given the morale and motivational issues that are certain to beset the team in the coming days and weeks, but there will be opportunities to make strides behind the scenes. "It starts with practice, having atten- tion to detail, having focus that you're not the guy messing up, and it comes down to executing," Fries said. "You can talk about it all you want, but it's when you put your hand in the dirt and go out there and do your job, and can you trust the guy next to you? Can you work a double team with that guy? It's about getting reps and building confidence within practice and taking the practice over to the game." There will be growing pains, to be sure, but the process needs to happen, and the clock has started on its imple- mentation. ■ James Franklin knows that for as much as everyone would like to quarantine every- thing about 2020 in a bubble and burn it, that the ramifications of the Nittany Lions' 0-5 start will last far longer than anyone might like. "Obviously whenever you have challenges like this, you know, it creates work, it creates things that you're going to have to work through," Franklin said on Tuesday. "I think obviously coming into this season before all the dynamics changed, I think everybody would agree that things were really going pretty well." Franklin's point will be an interesting experiment in how recruits – because that is what it comes down to – really perceive Penn State's season. BEN JONES STATECOLLEGE.COM We could be sitting here at any other type of record. We could be 5-0, 4-1, 3-2. It doesn't matter what our record is. It's not pressure. It's expectations. It's the ex- pectation to win, because none of us are losers. It's not some miracle breakthrough that's going to happen. That's not how football works. It's a formula. It's an every- day constant type of thing – that's how you approach everything. It's never a break- out, singular moment. ANTONIO SHELTON T H E M O N T H I N . . . O P I N I O N S Q U O T E S

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