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Parents were permitted into the stadium beforehand for pictures but had to leave before kickoff. "We are extremely disappointed for our football seniors, their parents and their families," the university said in a prepared statement. "They have been looking forward to their Senior Day and making arrangements to attend Satur- day's game, so this timing has proven difficult for all parties. However, we un- derstand the gravity of the pandemic and know this decision was made with the health and safety of our communi- ties at the forefront." The safety-first mindset has extended to the coaching staff and their families. Because of COVID, Franklin has been living apart from his wife and daughters since last summer. His youngest daughter, Addison, has sickle cell dis- ease, a blood disorder that can weaken the immune system. So while Franklin coached the team in State College this fall, his family was living at their Florida vacation home. Even with the season concluding, Franklin isn't sure what the future will hold. "It's been tough," he said in early De- cember. "I can't tell you what I would do for a hug from my wife and daughters. I can't express it to you. ... There's going to be a point where, when we get to the end of the season, for me and our players and our staff, [we need to ask] how we can get everybody to their families in a safe way and let them get some time be- fore we come back to school and get back going on our off-season and trying to get back to some normalcy. "One of the big things for me is not only getting down to see my family, but how can I get my family back here at some point? How could they come back and do that and keep my daughter safe without really having anywhere near here that can handle sickle cell?" Franklin's concerns are hardly unique, and they are likely to linger, even if the vaccine programs that are now getting under way end up driving down infec- tion rates in the months to come. While the 2020 football season is certain to be remembered as an outlier in comparison to those that preceded it, it's impossible to know what the seasons ahead will look like and whether there's a return to relative normalcy in the offing. "I guess right now, in the heat of it all, it's hard to answer that," Franklin said. "Because to me, I'm not just looking at it from a football [standpoint], I'm looking at the whole picture. Obviously, when all these decisions were made, it was hard to predict how this was going to play out. You look at the Big Ten in general, you look at the records in the Big Ten, and there have been a few programs that have been able to [avoid cancellations]. I don't know if there's ever been a year in the Big Ten like this, from a competitive standpoint pretty much across the board. "I think we're in a position where it's still hard to predict what the future holds. When is this going to end? When is this going to change? How are we going to get back to normal?" ■ I totally believe this year was a con- 5uence of bad luck, COVID and poor coaching decisions. Maybe throw in the inability of college kids to practice hard on their own, especially a8er coming o6 a bowl win that indicated 2020 would be THEIR YEAR. Not to mention social events that may have contributed to taking their eye o6 the ball. There's no doubt in my mind that COVID se- verely hampered the new coaches from settling in, and was Reason No. 1 for their not achieving their goals! And losing Micah Parsons, plus our top two RBs, was something we never recovered from. Surprisingly so. BobE We will win more games next season than we will this season. Beyond that, it is a work in progress. I believe we have reason to feel optimistic, as we identi4ed talented new players such as Keyvone Lee, Parker Washington, Joey Porter, etc. We also see that we have talented LBs that need strengthening and conditioning and experience be- fore we can call this group a strength. If Sean Cli6ord can build o6 of where he is right now, he should have a pretty good 4nal season, but can he? Can our newest assistant coaches get their players to buy in on their style and succeed? Can CJF better manage the clock and make better game day deci- sions? Lots of questions, but give us a full summer prep, and next fall should be decent to good! Jerademan The three-year rule that allows play- ers to make themselves eligible for the dra8 makes projecting next season's outlook di7cult. If everyone other than Pat Freiermuth stays for their fourth year, I believe including the bowl game, an 11- to 12-win season is in the o7ng. If not, we could be some- where between eight to 10 wins. I still think the screw-up at Indiana did this team in. I give the coaches credit for eventually getting the team back on track. MPK65 I think 8-4 is a reasonable guess, as- suming we continue to improve. We should also remember that in last year's 11-2 season, we played 4ve games that were decided by a touch- down or less. In those 4ve games, we went 4-1. A couple of them could have gone the other way pretty easily. While we did take care of business, the fact is, we played a lot of very close, one-possession games. While this 2020 team's record might not be a re- 5ection of who they are, I am also of the opinion 11-2 isn't re5ective of our true identity either. We are one of the better teams in the Big Ten but not dominant. lilromeo S I T E L I N E S B W I . R I V A L S . C O M R E A D E R S S O U N D O F F

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