Blue White Illustrated

F O O T B A L L Barbour: Penn State planning to hold spring practice Nothing can be taken for granted as the pandemic continues to play havoc with both winter sports and the fall sports that have belatedly started up. But athletic director Sandy Barbour said Jan. 26 that Penn State has every intention of holding a conventional spring football practice – or at least as close to conventional as is possible in 2021. "I don't know whether you want to call it 'official' or not, but just like with all of our sports, we're going to continue to train, and if it's appropriate in a particu- lar sport, compete," Barbour said. "We're going to continue to do that un- less the conditions change and it's not safe or healthy for us to do it. So yeah, we're a go." Barbour said that the Big Ten could conceivably impose restrictions on spring practice that would go beyond anything the NCAA might put in place. But, she added, "I don't see that hap- pening." "We're having on-field practices for 30 of our programs right now, and then football would be the 31st," she said. "From an NCAA structure, they're al- lowed to have on-field practices. Obvi- ously, they're going through training and winter conditioning right now, and un- less conditions were to change for the worse, I don't see anything other than us going through a traditional spring prac- tice." Even if the team is able to hold a rela- tively normal set of spring drills, the Blue-White Game will almost certainly look very different than it typically does. Most years, Penn State welcomes crowds of 60,000 or 70,000 to Beaver Stadium as part of the university's unof- ficial spring reunion weekend. But last year's game was canceled, and the status of the 2021 edition is uncertain. Barbour couldn't say for sure whether the game would be played, and even if it is played, the attendance restrictions could look much as they did during the 2020 sea- son. "I think it's too early to tell right now in terms of what the conditions are going to be. If it were to be today, we would be limited to about 2,500 in Beaver Stadium," Barbour said. "It would be limited to families of players and staff. We're going to have to get a lot closer to what the time frame would be before we can really decide if we're going | Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour met with the media via Zoom on Jan. 26 to discuss a variety of press- ing issues, including her assessment of the football program's 2020 season, the hiring of Mike Yurcich as offensive co- ordinator and the continuing impact of the pandemic on PSU's athletic depart- ment. Here's a look at what she had to say: ON PSU'S FOOTBALL FUTURE While acknowledging that the Nittany Lions' 0-5 start in 2020 was "concerning," Barbour was quick to note that James Franklin and his staff were able to keep the team engaged, and their efforts paid off, as Penn State ended the year with a four-game winning streak. "I think that James and his staff cer- tainly found a lot of answers," Barbour said. "And whether it was [a matter of finding] our footing in a pandemic, or we solved some things schematically or personnelwise, I think what we saw in the back half of that season was way more indicative of our program. "Now frankly, it's going to be a differ- ent squad in 2021, whether it be through graduation or leaving for the NFL or transfers, or other things, and I feel very confident about James's leadership, where our staff is, and where our young men are right now. I'm looking forward to 2021." Asked about benchmarking the pro- gram against the small group of schools that are in regular contention for the College Football Playoff, Barbour said the team and the athletic department as a whole are constantly looking to create opportunities for success. "I think there are certainly things that we need to shore up, that we need to improve," she said. "We've got new things that are being thrown at us from a college athletics landscape, whether it be transfers and immediate eligibility, or [name, image and likeness regula- tions] and all those kinds of things, and we need to make sure as a department that we're prepared for that. But I feel very good about the trajectory of where we are from a football standpoint as well as the department standpoint." ON CHANGING COORDINATORS Kirk Ciarrocca had received a multiyear con- tract when he was hired as offensive co- ordinator in December 2019, but Penn State decided to go in a different direc- tion after just one season. Barbour said that the buyout the department is obli- gated to pay will be mitigated if and when Ciarrocca lands a new job. Penn State has been under financial constraints due to the pandemic, but F O O T B A L L N O T E B O O K B Y N A T E B A U E R

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