Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/929717
F A S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R L Y L O O K should have done that,' " he said a few days before facing Washington. "You can't go back. There are so many people who come and talk to us who play in the NFL, and they say that you always try to come back to this moment. They definitely say to cherish it. That's probably the best advice I got from the [Penn State] lettermen. "It's hard," he admitted. "I'm a 20- year-old kid, and it's my dream to play in the NFL. And I do think about it. Sometimes you can't sleep at night because you think about it. But you've got to fight it and you've got to try as hard as you can to just cherish the moment that you have and cherish what you have with your teammates, because nothing is guaranteed. Noth- ing is guaranteed in life." Although his role was said to be "limited," Barkley had 18 carries for 137 yards and two touchdowns, and seven catches for 37 more yards. He wasn't playing for a national cham- pionship, but by making Penn State seem like the kind of program that future prospects should want to play for, the kind that instills fierce loy- alty, he helped it take another step toward that goal. Franklin did that, too, replacing the usual tedium of the halftime in- terview with a bit of improvisational theater and later posing for a num- ber of postgame photos in which he looked as though he was going to eat the football atop the Fiesta Bowl championship trophy. That sort of lightheartedness sends a message that's congruent with the image Penn State has been projecting on the field lately: We like to have fun around here. "You watch us play, and we play an exciting brand of football," Franklin said. "The guys love playing to- gether. The coaches love watching them play. It's a party." It sure looked that way in the Fiesta Bowl. And if the on- and off-field trends are any indication, this party might only be getting started. ■