Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1503568
A U G U S T 2 0 2 3 19 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T H E B I G P I C T U R E / / / / / / / NFL Draft pick who missed the end of last season with an injury. Penn State has been eliciting plenty of preseason buzz. The Lions are eighth in Athlon's and Lindy's polls, and fifth ac- cording to Phil Steele. They're also fifth in Austin Mock's more data-driven rankings for The Athletic. "Don't sleep on the Nit- tany Lions," Mock writes. "They'll once again boast one of the best defenses in all of America and also one of the more dynamic rushing attacks with Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen." Franklin has downplayed all talk of rank- ings and playoff appearances, preferring instead to focus on the team's more im- mediate concerns. The best way to achieve the big objectives, he said, is to take care of all the smaller ones along the way. The first of those objectives is to earn a season- opening win over West Virginia when the Mo u n ta i n e e rs visit Beaver Sta- dium on Sept. 2. At a news con- ference in June, Franklin said his expectations head- ing into the season were to " have a great training camp, fin- ish the summer with the best GPA we've had, create more depth, get healthy, put ourselves in the best position to beat West Virginia and be 1-0, let you guys go on TV or the radio or the internet and talk about that, and keep doing that each week and see where it leads us." It could lead to the threshold of the CFP. Alternatively, it could lead to another locked door. For now, Franklin doesn't want his play- ers fixating on an outcome, good or bad. Better to focus on the process leading up to it. "What really matters is, do our habits and our actions align with who we say we want to be and where we want to go?" he said. "If not, it's just talk, with nothing really to back it up." ■ With 920 victories since playing its first intercol- legiate football game in 1881, Penn State is the seventh-winningest program in the FBS. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL