Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1509432
6 6 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State is 5-0 for the fifth time in the James Franklin era. The Nit- tany Lions blasted Northwestern 43-13 on Sept. 30 at Ryan Field. Coor- dinator Mike Yurcich's offense eclipsed the 30-point mark for the 12th con- secutive game, which leads the nation. Second-year coordinator Manny Diaz's defense held its fifth straight opponent to 15 points or fewer and gave up less than 100 rushing yards for the fourth time in 2023. What's scary for future opponents is that Penn State is doing this despite not firing on all cylinders. What Franklin, his staff and players have accomplished so far is impres- sive. What comes next is what matters, though. Penn State was 5-0 in 2021 and 2022 before dropping Game 6. That probably won't happen this time around, with massive underdog Mas- sachusetts coming to town on Oct. 14 following a bye week. But it goes without saying that how the team improves during what Franklin called "a bye week, not an off week" will go a long way in determining how far this team goes, or does not go, in 2023. Franklin has tweaked plenty of things during his 10-year tenure in State Col- lege. One of them is how his team ap- proaches a bye week. It is massively important for the current and future state of the program. Key players get needed rest and re- covery time. Reserves and young play- ers earn valuable developmental reps. And recruiting is mixed in, too. "One of the things that we studied in great detail was bye weeks. What is the best way to handle it so that you can find that balance between recovery and getting the guys fresh, but also getting better?" Franklin said. "This is a bye week, not an off week. We've got to get better this week, and that's the fine line, right? What can we do during the week to allow the guys to recover? "The bye weekend will be huge, es- pecially if it's handled the right way. The coaches will get ahead on the schedule as well during this bye week. But, next week will be totally, obvi- ously, on our next opponent. "Those are the things that we're looking at pretty hard. [Athletics di- rector] Pat [Kraft] has allowed us to hire people to help with that as well. We just have more people to do more things." He's talking about analysts, of course. The group, which now totals 12, works on diagnosing Penn State's flaws and finding those of future opponents, among many other things. They will be tasked, as will the rest of the coaching staff, with fixing problems from the first five weeks. The players are, too, of course. A college football team cannot go undefeated without being perfect be- fore its bye week. But if it wastes the time without a game, it's likely to end up on the wrong side of a contest. To a man, Penn State players who spoke after the Northwestern win said the Lions are looking forward to build- ing on what they started rather than being satisfied with what they have ac- complished so far. "We've got a whole season left," red- shirt senior defensive end Adisa Isaac said. "I feel like it's only the start. It's only five games. We've got bigger goals to get to. It's just a warmup. We just have to build off of it and keep going. "We need to look at all the mistakes. Even though we won [against North- western] and it seemed like a good game in the second half, people made mistakes. "There were lot of missed assign- ments that need to be corrected. Cleaning up on the back end and the small details are really going to help us be a more complete defense moving on to tougher opponents later in the season. "We can't get complacent. We need to use this off week as a time to prepare for the next opponent and take care of our bodies. We're going into a stretch of the year where it's going to be pretty tough. "We need to be watching more film, building more chemistry and doing all the little things to get that edge over an opponent." If all of that happens, Penn State will be better for it moving forward. ■ O P I N I O N G R E G P I C K E L G R E G . P I C K E L @ O N 3 . C O M Making The Most Of The Bye Week THE LAST WORD Coach James Franklin has talked about the importance of his team using the bye week to keep improving. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL