Franklin sheds light on philosophy behind Lions' non-conference opponents

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The conversations about future scheduling are ongoing between athletic director Sandy Barbour and James Franklin, but Penn State's head coach is also looking at as much data as possible to determine the future of the Lions' non-conference schedule.

"For me, the most important thing is what's going to give us the best chance to prepare us to consistently be a part of our conference championship discussion," Franklin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.

One of the challenges that Franklin highlighted with formulating the non-conference schedule, which for Penn State this season included Akron, Pitt and Georgia State, involves how much practice time Penn State would need to dedicate to preparing for specific opponents, particularly ones who are a little more unorthodox with their offense. For example, take a team that runs the option. Preparing Penn State's defense for the option takes away from time during camp that Penn State could use on other areas that would be more beneficial the rest of the season.



"It's not just the impact that you have to make with your team in terms of time, in terms of preparing for an option-style team, but also what it takes away during camp from preparing for the other styles that you're going to play the rest of the year," he said. "There's a pretty interesting stat out there: Teams that play an option style, what their win/loss record is the week after playing one of those teams."

Penn State played Army and the Black Knights' triple-option attack back in 2015 and at the time Franklin highlighted the stress that particular offense puts on a team, mainly because it's a type of offense that a team faces maybe only once every couple of years. But beyond the uniqueness of the opponent is also the location. Is it a home-and-home series? Is it a neutral site game? Does that particular non-conference game require an extensive amount of travel?

Franklin's first game as Penn State's head coach was the Croke Park Classic in Dublin, Ireland, a game he inherited after Bill O'Brien scheduled it and left. At the time Franklin said he wasn't a big fan of playing games that far away in general, mainly because of all the logistical challenges and scheduling hurdles -- plus the class time that players missed. When a team's bye week is, as well as who it plays before and after a non-conference game, is also something Franklin said he takes into consideration when discussing the future non-conference schedule with Barbour.

And given Penn State's situation, currently ranked No. 5 in the nation after missing out on a shot at the College Playoff last season despite winning the Big Ten, Franklin said he continues looking at all the data out there about how to make what he feels is the best non-conference schedule for Penn State.

"I don't know if there is a model that you could say 'this is the model,' because things that they have said that they were factoring in in the past are not factoring in," Franklin said. "I've even heard some other discussions this week of reasons and things that people have said, and I've never heard. So the narrative is changing. Until we have a couple years' worth of data to study, it's going to be hard to say. But the problem is we're dealing with people, not computers anymore. So the people in the room change year-to-year, so I don't know how consistent the data is going to be because it's not going to be the same people making these decisions."

"You know, I still would make the argument," he continued, "The best thing we can do is win our conference. I think if you win your conference, that's the best case that you can make. And then after that, humans are going to make decisions."

GUESS THE DEPTH CHART

While this week's depth chart is the first one that acknowledges Saquon Barkley as Penn State's top kick returner, Franklin said that he and the rest of the coaching staff and players were long aware since camp that Barkley, not Miles Sanders, was the top option in the kick return game.

Franklin just didn't want opponents to know about it because then they wouldn't kick to Barkley. So they made him the No. 2 option on the Week 1 and Week 2 depth charts, but he was always back first on kickoffs.

"I think that's what's going to happen now," he said. "That's why having Koa Farmer as one of our up-backs I think is really important because he's got the ability to return the ball. You know, again, I studied this. You look at what Stanford did with their starting tailback [Christian McCaffrey]. Had a huge impact as a tailback, as well as a punt return guy and as well as a kick return guy."

While some will see using the Heisman candidate back there as a risk, Franklin doesn't. Franklin has long mentioned drive-start average as one of the most important statistics during the course of a game and he believes Barkley giving his team the best chance for improved starting field position is worth the risk.