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N A T E   B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M Penn State head coach James Franklin walked into the visiting team media room with purpose on Saturday night. His Nit- tany Lions had lost for the second time in as many weeks. The defeat le? his team at 7-2 on the season, and it was certain to tumble once again in the weekly polls a?er being ranked No. 2 in the country only eight days earlier, and Franklin was determined to correct its course. "At the end of the day, give Michigan State credit. Give Coach [Mark] Danto- nio credit. We have a lot of work to do," he said. "If there is any gray area what- soever with our coaches, with our play- ers and with anybody else, we're going to get back to what got us here, which is focusing on being 1-0 and not worrying about anything else whatsoever. You focus on being 1-0 and if you achieve that each week, then everything else will take care of itself." Failing to accomplish that very spe- cific, very present goal in either of the past two weeks, Franklin questioned whether his "young program" had been mature enough to handle the hype that had built around Penn State football. "We're going to get back to what I know works, our formula," he said. "We're not talking about anything else other than about handling our business, about being 1-0, about respecting our opponent and getting better every sin- gle day at practice and not worrying about anything else besides that." First though, they'll need to examine what went wrong in a game that ended nearly seven hours a?er it kicked off. A WEATHER EVENTThe game itself lasted only 3 hours, 35 minutes, but there was a 3-hour, 22-minute weather delay that began midway through the second quarter. At a little a?er 1 p.m., the two teams were escorted back to their locker rooms. From there, the Nit- tany Lions moved from their own locker room into the postgame media room area, and some players took off their pads and ate Chick-Fil-A sandwiches. "I want to give Michigan State credit. They were great," Franklin said. "Obvi- ously not an ideal situation being in a visiting locker room. "I've never been a part of something like that before. I like to say we have a plan. We have a plan for whatever may come. I didn't have anything in my coaching manual about how to handle a 3-hour, 22-minute delay. I'll guarantee Franklin on defeat: 'We have a lot of work to do' N O V E M B E R 4 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 11 G A M E N O T E B O O K

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