Penn State Nittany Lions College Football Pregame Quote, 12/29/2024

SCOTT LEIGHTMAN: Coach, welcome. 7-0 Penn State history, 12-2 this year. Impressive win over SMU, 38-10. Welcome to the Valley of the Sun.

COACH FRANKLIN: Obviously, really excited about being here. Penn State’s got tremendous history with the Fiesta Bowl. Obviously representing the Big Ten, we take a ton of pride in. We had a tremendous experience last time and very, very appreciative of the time we were able to spend here. We had a great experience. The Bowl treated us unbelievably.

We’re really not approaching this like a bowl game. This is a playoff game, and I wanted to make sure that our players understood the differences. We’re not coming out here for a week, and enjoying the community for a couple of days, and then getting into work. This is a business trip. I want to make sure our guys understand that.

It’s really been good so far. We’re excited about the opportunity. Obviously, when you look at Penn State’s history being 7-0 in this game ‚Äì also very, very cool that Boise is undefeated in this game, from what I understand, 3-0. So two teams with tremendous history.

Got a ton of respect for their head football coach [Spencer Danielson]; for the university as a whole, and for their program. Obviously one of the most exciting games in Fiesta Bowl history, Boise was involved in that.

I know they got off the planes yesterday with some shirts [“Please Count Us Out”], maybe kind of an underdog mentality, or not getting respect. I can guarantee you they have our respect. We take a lot of pride in that as a program we respect everybody that we play, but it’s not hard to create that when you watch them on tape.

Boise is a really, really good football team led by arguably the best player in college football, and definitely the best running back [Ashton Jeanty] in college football, or one of the best running backs in college football. They have our respect, there’s no doubt about that. Our guys have done a great job all week long preparing.

I do want to make sure you guys know, I have hiked Camelback before. It was a little bit more difficult than I imagined. Then my wife and kids all got up early this morning and they’re doing the hot air balloon at sunrise, so my family is having a great experience.

It’s funny, a lot of times people ask you about these bowl trips, like, are you able to enjoy it and that kind of stuff? For us, it’s really a business trip. But for the university people that are able to attend, and obviously the families, they’re obviously able to enjoy the community.

Appreciate the opportunity to be here, represent the Big Ten, and most importantly Penn State.

Q. James, how much progress have you seen from Ethan Grunkemeyer since the SMU game? Where has he gotten better and how valuable was the snaps that he got in that game?

COACH FRANKLIN: Super talented young man that we have a lot of confidence in. Up to this point, he really had been impressing people on what we call the developmental squad, basically the “look squad” for our defense, and making some phenomenal throws. Obviously during training camp, he was getting more reps when he was actually competing.

To have him back now in the mix and to be able to get him some reps with the varsity has been invaluable. We tried to get him in that game as early as possible, because we knew it would be important moving forward. We’ll have some packages for him in this game as well, because I think it’s important that we get him in the game. He’s taken some tremendous strides.

But he’s a very, very talented football player. He’s got a bright future. Obviously, under the circumstances, his journey has changed. He’s embraced that journey, and I know our team has a ton of confidence in him. Really, really important reps he’s getting in every practice.

Q. How much have you guys got out or utilized Oregon as a common opponent with how much you got out of that film with Boise and Oregon?

COACH FRANKLIN: When you talk about, again, respecting our opponent, that’s the only game you got to watch. They went to Oregon, which is a tough place to play, and they not only played well and lost by 3, but had the lead for significant parts of that game. It doesn’t take a whole lot more than watching that game.

But for our players and our staff, whenever you share a common opponent and you’re able to watch that game and make some parallels, there’s a ton of value in that. That game was very valuable for our staff and very valuable for our coaches.

Q. The quarterback [Ethan Grunkemeyer] who played half a game yesterday in your backup quarterback situation. Is there anything that can be done to incentivize playing for the team you’re on, as opposed to thinking about what’s going to happen next?

COACH FRANKLIN: It’s a challenge that has been a challenge for a number of years. It’s obviously become even more challenging with some of the things with the calendar and with the transfer portal, the windows; and then on top of that, NIL.

It is a challenge, and I think it’s one of those things that we can’t just keep talking about, that this is a challenge and a problem in college football. We have to come up with some solutions.

We’ve been talking about this for a while. A lot of different people have brought it up. I’m one of the people that feel very, very strongly that we need a commissioner of college football. We need somebody that’s waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night thinking about what’s in the best interest of college football.

Right now, I think that’s being done by the commissioners, but whenever you have people that are making decisions and running college football, they’re going to be biased towards what’s best to their conference. That’s not in the best interest of college football and the student-athletes.

I’m a big proponent for that, but we just can’t keep talking about this being a problem. We’ve got to come up with some solutions. What are possibly some of those solutions? For me and again, I know whenever a coach says this, people don’t want to hear it from coaches, but I think if every decision we make is based on money, then we’re headed in the wrong direction. We should be doing what’s best for college football and the student-athletes.

To me, getting rid of the conference championship games would help with that. Because right now, not everybody is playing a conference championship game anyway. When you have a committee sitting in a room trying to compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges, it’s hard to do that when not everybody is playing under the same model. Get rid of the conference championship game. That will shorten the season and help with the window a little bit.

The other thing that I think is very, very important is that everybody is playing the same number of conference games, whether that’s eight, nine, whatever the number is. Everybody is playing the same. Again, the committee can compare apples to apples. Then I think let’s start a week earlier.

If you can take some of the stress off of the academic calendar -again, God forbid we talk about academics, right? That used to be every conversation started with academics, and that’s becoming less and less. Maybe I’m old‚Äìschool and maybe a- traditionalist, but I still believe in the model.

There’s some recommendations. Rather than just saying this is a problem, I thought I would throw out a few recommendations. But I think one of the most important things that we can do is let’s get a commissioner of college football that is waking up every single morning and going to bed every single night, making decisions that’s in the best interest of college football.

I think Nick Saban would be the obvious choice. I think if we made that decision Nick- will probably call- me tonight and say: Don’t do this. But I think he’s the obvious choice, right? I think there’s some other really good candidates out there.

But that would be a very, very important step moving forward to come up with some solutions and do what’s best for our sport.