James Franklin calls for college football awards to be presented on new schedule

With one loss and only two games left to play, Penn State is closing in on a College Football Playoff. And it’s creating a good problem to have for head coach James Franklin.

As some of his players — like edge rusher Abdul Carter — are up for awards, the timing of the ceremonies would pull them away from pre-CFP practices. So Franklin has an evident solution.

“The bad thing is none of these awards have adapted to the new college football and all these awards are still during the season when all of us are playing and they want you to come to the awards, but we’ve got practice,” Franklin said. “Some of the awards have gone virtual or they’ve moved the actual award banquet to after the season. But I think a lot of these awards need to look at it and I think with the college football model changing, they’re going to have to change and adapt with it as well.”

To Franklin’s point, the final regular season game is Nov. 30, conference title games are the following weekend — the Big Ten’s is on Dec. 7 this year — and the College Football Playoff first round games are Dec. 20-21.

And while Franklin has his gripe for some awards ceremonies still overlapping with the ongoing season, he’s well aware that Penn State being in position to be playing then and having his players — in this case, Carter — up for awards is still something to be celebrated.

Carter is certainly worth the attention, too, as he’s been a disruptive force moving to the edge of the defensive front for the Nittany Lions in 2024.

He’s got eight sacks and a league-leading tackle for loss in 10 games, plus a pair of forced fumbles and three passes defended. In short: Carter has been exactly the sort of game-wrecking force any defense wants coming off the edge.

“The good thing is that he’s on these lists for these awards,” Franklin said after singing Carter’s praises.