James Franklin describes emotions of hearing Penn State called for College Football Playoff

The Penn State Nittany Lions and their head coach James Franklin had an emotional weekend, coming up just short in the Big Ten Championship Game before it was announced that they would host a first round College Football Playoff game.

In the wake of that weekend, Franklin broke down the emotions going through Penn State’s locker room after hearing its name called and what the future holds for the Nittany Lions as they prepare.

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“I think in the locker room, again, because the season isn’t over, I think it was handled pretty well,” James Franklin said. “Obviously, there were still some hurt feelings and raw emotions, but overall, I think guys get it and understand that we’ve got a ton of football left in front of us as long as we handle it the right way. I think our leadership will step up big time.”

Prior to the announcement of the College Football Playoff bracket, James Franklin shared with his team what they could expect, but that nothing was entirely established until it was announced that Penn State would be hosting SMU in the first round.

“Today, we didn’t really do anything formal. We got here, we had a team lunch, and then after we got here and had the team lunch,” Franklin said. “We just had a team meeting and told them what the next couple of days would look like and that we would find out later this afternoon where we were playing and who we were playing against, and then that would impact our full calendar, because whether we were playing a Friday game or a Saturday game, it would impact that. We already have them all mapped out and scheduled, so the players already received it and we’re ready to go.”

For Penn State, this is the program’s first time making it to the College Football Playoff. It comes in the same year that the field expanded to 12 teams from four. Despite that, the Nittany Lions didn’t have a watch party to see where they ended up.

“But it’s not like we had a watch party or anything like that,” Franklin said. “It was a long night and a physical night, so guys, we want them to get rested and recovered. We were pretty confident that we were going to be in the Playoff. It’s just where we were going to be.”

Penn State will host the SMU Mustangs at Beaver Stadium at 12:00 p.m. EST on December 21st.