What did Penn State accomplish during its 'productive' bye week?

Penn State football has finished its own lone bye week of the season. The No. 6 Nittany Lions finished the September portion of their schedule with a perfect 5-0 mark. They then transitioned right into an off week. The program was hardly off in a traditional sense, of course. It practiced, to some degree, on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Rest and recovery was a key component for the starters and oft-used reserve, who still got work in. Developmental squad players earned more opportunities. And the on-field staff was on the road recruiting.

On Tuesday, during his first news conference before this Saturday’s Massachusetts game (3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network), Penn State coach James Franklin broke down what specifically was accomplished during a ‘productive’ week.

Penn State focused on itself

The first part of every bye week sees Penn State focus on itself at the start. The team returned home from Evanston, Ill., two Saturdays ago following a win over Northwestern, and the next day was normal. Sunday is almost always focused on corrections from the week before (this past Sunday is not an example of that, of course). From there, the bye week plan kicked into full effect.

“Bye week, No. 1, is self-scout, looking at yourself, what you’re doing well, what you need to do better, strengths and weaknesses,” Franklin said. “We also did it across the ball [with the offense evaluating the defense and vice versa]. That was valuable. And then obviously practice enough that we can stay sharp and get enough full speed good on good periods, which are really valuable, but also not too much that we have a chance to recover, get fresh, and get healthy.

“I thought we were able to do that. We practiced Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which were more traditional practices, and Thursday was more of a jog-through.”

Franklin said Penn State is not totally healthy coming out of the bye but thinks the Lions are “in a pretty good place.” That’s good news. It continues to sound like the Lions will have receiver Harrison Wallace on the field Saturday. Whether guard JB Nelson is, however, remains to be seen.

Recruiting and R&R came next

After Thursday, a full-on recruiting blitz took place for the coaches while the players got to take off Friday, and possibly even go home, for the weekend.

“I started in Connecticut, then North Carolina, then Florida, then New Jersey, then Massachusetts, and got a ton of work in recruiting done,” Franklin said. “So, that was valuable, and so did the rest of the staff. “Then back in, I wouldn’t call it a traditional Sunday practice, because we didn’t have the previous film to review, so we were able to get ahead.”

Blue-White Illustrated subscribers learned plenty of specifics about the coaches’ travel stops last week. You can read that story here.

A difference of note

Finally, Franklin was asked to address what, if anything, has changed with the way he approaches a bye week during his time as a head coach. And, it became clear that the growing Penn State staff, which features two additional analysts this year compared to last year, has been a significant positive.

“With our staff changes over the last couple of years, we have personnel that are able to do other projects for us, as well, which is also valuable,” Franklin said. “There are strengths in those numbers. I think we got a lot done.

“We have more staff and the staff that we do have is more experienced. We’ve always had experienced guys, but I think we have more with experience that can really give us some good information.”

It all leads to this succinct way of summing up the bye week:

“It was valuable,” Franklin said. “And, the players were able to get some time off. Productive, but now we have to get back to work.”