STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State is firing up the bus once again for what's become a tradition of sorts as the coaches caravan hits the road this week with stops in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
The sixth caravan in seven years is a chance for Penn State fans to ask questions of James Franklin, Sandy Barbour, Pat Chambers and other coaches on the three-stop tour, while Penn State's decision makers also work in visits with donors. With the Nittany Lions in the midst of raising funds for their facility masterplan the caravan is another way to continue building on these relationships.
It's also a scaled back tour -- a far cry from the 11 day, 18-stop marathon Bill O'Brien completed in 2012 -- as he hit the road in an effort to get to know the alumni while also trying to help repair Penn State's brand in the midst of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. The caravan bus was the place where coaches could bounce ideas off one another while rolling from one stop to the next, often completing two stops per day before getting up and doing it all again the next day.
They lived and breathed the One Team mantra that became the athletic department's slogan during the sanction era, putting on a tour that logistically mimicked a recruiting trip while also throwing in questions from fans and the media at every stop.
"[Franklin] told me he eliminated it," O'Brien laughed during his return visit to campus this spring. Penn State did skip the caravan in 2016 due to the status of the Pennsylvania budget. They brought it back in 2017 with seven stops. "What was it? I did 36 in two years?"
As the trajectory of the program changed so too did the caravan and what was being asked during it. Gone are questions about names on or off the back of the jerseys and after back-to-back 11-wins seasons don't look for fans to give Franklin as much unsolicited coaching advice as they did in years past.
Some of those moments would've made the caravan's blooper reel if such a thing existed.
“I did get some advice in the bathroom," Franklin recalled last year ahead of the caravan's final stop in Williamsport. "This year, while I was using the restroom, someone recommended running the zone read out of the Power-I with both Saquon [Barkley] and Miles [Sanders] on the field. That was an interesting conversation."
Last year there were also fan recommendations to use Tommy Stevens more, questions in Pittsburgh about whether or not they'll play Pitt every year (they won't and Barbour even said as much at the following caravan stop in Altoona as she outlined her philosophy of non-conference scheduling) and Franklin shed light on why he wants to be recognized as more than a quality recruiter.
"I take a little offense when people always say, 'Well, those guys at Penn State and James Franklin, they're great recruiters,' " he said last May. "Well, I get that. But at this point, after what we did at Vanderbilt and what we did at Penn State and what we're doing at Penn State, that these guys do a great job of developing their players, they do a great job of coaching their players. There's nothing wrong with being a great recruiter, but I think our staff and our program are more than that."
The caravan is also more than the Xs and Os and program philosophies. One year Franklin stopped by the old neighborhood he spent time in as a kid in Pittsburgh and another included a quick detour to his alma mater East Stroudsburg where he took his caravan mates to Rudy's Tavern.
There was also the time in the Hershey Lodge in 2014 when he beamed as four-star offensive tackle Sterling Jenkins and four-star quarterback Brandon Wimbush both called to tell him during the caravan stop they were committed to Penn State. That helped generate excitement -- enough to at least get a ballroom full of people amped in early May.
Perhaps that excitement is the caravan's best selling point. It's become another thing to check off the to-do list after spring ball ends, classes close and recruiting camps aren't quite rolling just yet. It's become a small piece of the offseason, but for however many stops and however many off-the-wall questions get asked it's another day closer to the start of the 2018 season.