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P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> with an average of 217.0 all-purpose yards per game and was being hailed by pretty much everyone with a press cre- dential and/or internet connection as the best player in college football. But for those at the center of them, Heisman campaigns aren't so straight- forward. They're a kind of ritualistic theater in which you're expected to talk about the trophy as if it's not really that big a deal. They're like Oscar campaigns in that respect. Ask any nominee on the red carpet, and they'll tell you: It's all about the work. The word campaign is itself a provocation, suggesting that the purity of the competition is somehow being besmirched. You're supposed to want the Heisman Trophy, but not too much. That would imply you're focused on the wrong things. For the record, Penn State has the not- wanting-it-too-much part down cold. "I say it so many times, I don't really care about the Heisman award," Barkley said after the Indiana game. "Obviously I care about it, because I'm a competitor and I want to be the best, but that's not my focus. My focus is on the team, my focus is on the game, my focus is on coming out every week and pushing my team to continue to try to be the best possible." That's a sensible approach for a player in his shoes. If Barkley stays focused on the internal, the external will take care of itself. And really, there's not much of a choice. He doesn't have a vote, and he isn't calling the plays. But things get complicated when you start to factor in the potential ancillary benefits – in recruiting and overall pres- tige – that a Heisman Trophy would bring to the program as a whole. After the Indiana game, James Franklin was asked whether he thinks the Heisman is impor- tant to more than just the player who wins it. "I do," he said. So was the half- back option pass meant to showcase an- other facet of Barkley's game, to supply the highlight shows with content and the internet with more Barkley-related click bait? That's less clear. When Franklin was asked about that specific play, he said simply that it was part of a game plan de- signed to produce a victory. Any discus- sion of individual accolades would have to wait. "We're focused on winning and putting our players in the best position to be successful," he explained. "Whatever comes after that is awesome." It's a truism in college football – in all sports, really – that individual acclaim is a byproduct of team success. But is the inverse also true? Is future success a byproduct of the sort of individual ac- claim that Barkley is receiving right now? That's a harder case to make. How How much latitude does Trace Mc- Sorley have at the line of scrimmage as far as changing the play, and at what point does that happen? How would you evaluate his decision-making? That's been kind of his deal from the beginning. I'll tell you what, it's impres- sive sitting in the quarterback meetings. It's impressive sitting in the o;ensive meetings. He's got the stu; down, he re- ally does. In terms of this system compared to other systems, obviously the check- with-me system where you look back to the sideline, the coaches are handling that, which makes a lot of sense. I know a lot of times the NFL guys are not as com- plimentary of this system, which I dis- agree with. I think you look at us, we're a West Coast passing o;ense with progressions and footwork and very similar to what I came up in. The di;erence is that you've got the coach making the adjustments from the sideline, which makes sense, be- cause the players spend 20 hours a week on this and we spend whatever ridiculous number of hours we spend. So you might as well have the guy who's most prepared, most experienced, making those deci- sions. What we need Trace to do is to make adjustments with the protection, some adjustments in the run game, but mostly in the protections. I think the other thing is coming back to the sideline and having great conversa- tion and feedback with Joe [Moorhead] to make sure the way Joe is seeing things on the sideline, Trace is seeing it the same way. That information is really valuable. But yeah, it's Trace going through his progressions. It's making great decisions with the ball. Knowing when to hang in the pocket and knowing when to take o; and run. All those types of things, and really, over the last year and a half, he's been really good. He's been really good in those areas, and we want to continue to build on it. When you watch the o!ensive line on lm, what are the speci c areas that you look at and say: That's where we can get better, that's where this group has upside and room for im- provement? I think the biggest thing is :nishing. For the most part we're in good position, and for the most part our fundamentals and techniques have been good. There are a few plays where I think our inexpe- rience has showed up a little bit at times. But for the most part, we've got a hat on a hat. We're in the right position, and we've got to sustain the block for a half- second longer and we're through there. We sustain the block on Trace's one run a few weeks ago and it's a 45-yard gain, if not a touchdown. We sustain a block on one of Saquon's runs, instead of a 4- yard gain or a 6-yard gain, with Saquon, it's a big one. I think that's the biggest di;erence for us right now – sustaining and :nishing blocks. Are there some times where the de- fense makes a great call and they get us for a tackle for loss or something like that or a zero-yardage play? Yeah, that's going to happen. But for us, I think the biggest di;erence is just sustaining a lit- tle bit longer. Finishing blocks from an aggressive demeanor, from an aggressive perspective – that's the next step for us. Instead of just being content with cover- C O A C H S P E A K E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S R E C E N T

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