Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD D A V I D E C K E R T | D A V I D E C K E R T 9 8 @ G M A I L . C O M enn State's season did not end with a referee's whistle, with hand- shakes at midfield and one final postgame gathering of the men wearing blue and white – be it somber in defeat or joyous in victory. Instead, it ended with a tweet, con- taining a link to a statement that de- clared that the Nittany Lions would not be accepting an invitation to a bowl game. It was a fittingly weird way to close the book on a season like no other. That phrase has been tossed around so often over the past several weeks that it al- ready feels like a cliche. And yet, there's really no better way to describe a season that has been played without specta- tors, without tradition and without so much of what comprises the soul of col- lege football. While we hope things will look a whole lot more like what we're used to seeing by the time Penn State takes the field at Camp Randall Stadium in Madi- son, Wis., next season, the final whistle on 2020's hellacious take on college football was anything but a first step to- ward normality, because now Penn State must navigate an off-season like no other, too. Seniors can stay, if they want, thanks to an NCAA directive that paused the eligibility clock on every college ath- lete this season. But freshmen, sopho- mores and, for that matter, anyone else? Well, they're free to go. College athletes have been granted a one-time transfer waiver to play where they please without sitting out a season. As FOX studio analyst Urban Meyer put it, the transfer portal is about to look a whole lot like free agency. One of Meyer's former Big Ten coaching col- leagues, James Franklin, agreed with that assessment. "A lot of programs, very similar to the NFL, just like they have their evaluation departments that evaluate college prospects for the draft, they also have pro player personnel departments, where they're evaluating the roster of other teams," Franklin said. "A lot of the programs across the country have done that... where you have a completely separate recruiting department study- ing other people's rosters and being ready to take transfers. I think you're going to see that on a significant level this year across college football." That leaves us without any real idea of what Penn State's roster is going to look like next season. Normally, the biggest questions would revolve around which third-year players might decide to leave early and test the waters in the NFL. Now, that's just one variable in a long, complicated equation. Penn State is doing its best to prepare. Franklin said recently that he'd asked his assistant coaches to begin having conversations with players – seniors, especially – to get a feel for whether they intend to stay or leave. But, al- though the coaching staff might have an idea of where the Nittany Lions stand, the public is almost totally in the dark. Those variables apply to everybody. There are questions unique to Penn State, too, that will decide the success or failure of the months to come. How will the Nittany Lions react to their first losing season under Franklin? The last time Penn State finished a year with a losing record was in 2004. The next season, they went 11-1 and won a share of the Big Ten title. For anything approximating that turnaround to hap- pen, Franklin needs to prove that he can adapt his mission statement. Penn State isn't trying to get from great to elite anymore, as he once claimed after an emotional loss to Ohio State. The Nit- tany Lions are just trying to get off the mat. Penn State's coaching staff also has questions to answer. Offensive coordi- nator Kirk Ciarrocca will get the time on the practice field that he didn't get in his first off-season with the program. After Penn State finished the year with a 39-point showing against Michigan State and a 56-point outburst against Illinois, can Ciarrocca build off that platform and make fans forget about a largely disappointing start to his tenure? The first reflex of the diehards among Penn State's fan base after the Nittany Lions announced their bowl decision might have been to search for Penn State's 2021 schedule and start doing some mental math. Can the Lions sur- vive a trip to Wisconsin to open the sea- son? Will they be able to take care of business at home against an Auburn team that, as of this writing, had not hired a head coach after firing Gus Malzahn? Is there any hope of mounting a meaningful challenge on the road against Ohio State? Under normal circumstances, you might be able to make educated guesses regarding how those questions will shake out. These are not normal cir- cumstances. There's a long eight months ahead filled with departures, arrivals and decisions that will impact how these Nittany Lions fare in 2021. Ahead of an off-season like no other, there's so much that we just don't know. ■ Uncharted territory P

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