Blue White Illustrated

T H E 2 0 1 7 S E A S O N slapping a "top secret" label on your preseason roster may be negligible, es- pecially when weighed against the ensu- ing social media mockery. But winning has a way of transforming eccentricity into genius, and as of this writing, Har- baugh was 23-6 in two-plus seasons at his alma mater. At Ohio State, Urban Meyer gets points for not treating his football program like it's the Manhattan Project; you don't need to pass a retinal scan to get ahold of the Buckeyes' two-deep. But he was 1-0 vs. Paterno (while still at Florida), 2-0 vs. Bill O'Brien and is 2-1 against Franklin heading into an Oct. 28 show- down at the Horseshoe. Any coach who compiles an .800 winning percentage against Penn State is going to run afoul of Nittany Nation. There's still some football to be played before Penn State faces those two teams, so it's hard to say what the pregame outlook will be. But looking beyond the weekly challenges of the football season, it seems obvious that hopes for the future are high. That's partly due to the resources that Penn State has dedicated to its program. It just signed Franklin to a $34.7 million contract extension that makes him one of the five highest-paid coaches in the country. It's raised millions to upgrade the Lasch Building, and it's seeking mil- lions more for a range of improvements to its athletic facilities, including a moonshot project to remake Beaver Sta- dium. Those sorts of investments do come with strings attached. The expec- tations surrounding the program, which never really abated all that much even during the sanction years, are going to steadily increase. Fans are going to want results. They are going to want Penn State to be on par with the best of its conference rivals. Which brings us right back to Michi- gan and Ohio State. The road to great- ness runs through those two campuses. The Nittany Lions need to build the kind of team that can hold its own in Ann Arbor and Columbus, because if they do, they will by definition have built the kind of team that can hold its own any- where. Is it doable? Franklin seems to think so. He's been making his ambitions clear since he started jabbing his index finger in the air in his first batch of photo ops as Penn State's head coach. He clarified them further in a first-person column that he recently penned for ThePlayers- Tribune.com, writing that "everyone knows exactly where we're headed. Right to the top." After last year, I wouldn't put it past him to make good on that pledge. And rest assured, if Penn State is someday able to start pulling out victories in places like the Horseshoe and the Big House, they will be every bit as big as that win over Akron. ■ P R E S S C O N F E R E N C E S And we're getting closer to that, but we're still not where I think we can be and where I want to be. That's the next step for us. Since the spring, how do you think Connor McGovern has handled the transition back to center, particularly the vocal aspect, as well as being a communicator? I think he's been good. I don't know if I would necessarily call it a transi- tion back. I know he played center in high school, but they pretty much ran goal-line offense if you go back and watch his tape. They ran goal-line of- fense the entire time. He was in almost a four-point stance with the quarter- back under center, fullback like two yards behind the quarterback. So obvi- ously going back to center now, all he does, or predominantly, is shotgun snaps the whole time, and running a spread-type system, so it's new. Obvi- ously being in the middle and making the calls and kind of being the captain of the O-line, I get that part of it, but you know, I don't know how much car- ryover there is from what he did in high school to what we're asking him to do. But he's a guy who played at a pretty high level as a true freshman for us last year, has gotten bigger, has gotten stronger, has gotten leaner, is really doing a good job being verbal. That was an area where I was a little bit con- cerned about him [because] he's not the most vocal guy. So making sure that he was going to take control in there, make the calls with con;dence [was impor- tant]. We all see how great a player Jason Cabinda is on the #eld, but I'd like to know what kind of guy he is o$ the #eld. What kind of a person is he? Jason has got a really strong mom who's done a great job raising him. He comes from a very proud family, a fam- ily that takes education very seriously. Jason is a guy who has very strong opinions and beliefs, which I like. That's also why he's such a strong leader, because when he says things, he says it with conviction, because he's thought it through. He's going to be getting a degree in economics. He should be ;nishing this semester. He's done a nice job there. He's in leadership positions on campus, as well. Take athletics and take school out of it and just other experiences on campus, he's been great. He's a guy who is locked in [in meetings]. He's an active listener. He's an active learner. He's on the edge of his seat. He's nodding his head. He's got great eye contact, and he's the guy who you feel really strongly is reinforcing in the locker room and Saturday night what the young guys should be doing. ■

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