How will Penn State football handle the holidays and its practice prep for Boise State?
Penn State football has played on New Year’s Eve before. But, it’s never done so on the stage it is about to. The No. 6 Nittany Lions face No. 3 Boise State in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal round matchup next Tuesday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Unlike past Dec. 31 games, head coach James Franklin’s program has not had a month or so to prepare for the trip. In other years, the Lions could more easily incorporate the holiday season into its game prep. It will still do so this time around. But, how Penn State goes about doing so will be a little abnormal.
“We practiced yesterday, kind of our normal Sunday practice, and then tried to help everybody get out of town,” Franklin said Monday. “We went early in the morning so guys could get out of here. Coaches worked a full day, but tried to get the guys out of here so they could fly, drive wherever they were going. They’ll have off until Christmas Day evening. I want to make sure I term that the right way. We’ll have a team meeting and practice that evening. So it’s a little bit of time off for everybody.
“The coaches, we worked early this morning until this afternoon. Everybody’s heading out of the office now, get a couple hours of Christmas shopping, then be able to spend time with their family. And then after Christmas Day around 5 p.m., we’re getting in our normal game week.”
Penn State leaves town on Saturday
For a game on a Saturday, Penn State practices Sunday, has off Monday, and then holds its regular pre-game practices Tuesday-Friday before either traveling to a State College area hotel for a home game or boarding whatever mode of travel it is taking to a road game.
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With the CFP quarterfinal set to take place on a Tuesday, Penn State will be off this Monday and Tuesday. It will then start game week practice on Wednesday. It flies to Phoenix sometime on Saturday and then comes home after the contest.
“We always take whenever the game is and count back seven days, and that’s our normal game week,” Franklin said. “And we try to stick to that routine as much as we possibly can. It’s been good to us, and our players and coaches believe in it. So after that, we’re kind of back to things as normal, except obviously we don’t have school and those things.”
