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The 3-2-1: Some How, Some Way, College Football Will Return

The stunning developments to the college sports world due to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to have a wide-ranging impact and have generated more questions than answers since their arrival.

Still, with the calendar flipping from March to April, the jarring nature that first upended the winter sports championships, then eliminated spring sports altogether, have transitioned into a larger waiting game toward the future.

As the world grapples with the paramount coronavirus and its deadly effects, a new normal has started to settle in at Penn State.

Athletic director Sandy Barbour met with the media this week and expressed confidence that the athletic department could fulfill its financial obligations through the rest of 2020. Football defensive coordinator Brent Pry and tight ends coach Tyler Bowen also had media availabilities.

All were done, comfortably and without major hiccups, via Zoom web video conferencing. The participants, both the subjects themselves and the media covering them, all worked from home.

So let’s take another crack at the oft-used format from our colleagues in the Rivals network to sort through it all in the 3-2-1, here:

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THREE THINGS WE LEARNED

1 - Somehow, some way, college football will return

This was undoubtedly the biggest takeaway from Barbour’s meeting with the media Thursday.

Setting the tone early and often that the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and personnel is absolutely the top priority over anything else, her message beyond that was clear:

When that standard is satisfied thoroughly, there will be some form of a college football season, even if it strays wildly from what’s currently listed on the 2020 schedule.

“I believe it's in everyone's best interest when it's safe and right to do so, that we play a football season,” Barbour said. “We've already talked about kind of the emotional and the morale piece for communities across this country. And then certainly, there's a revenue and a financial piece to it.”

That “revenue and financial piece” shouldn’t be mistaken as dictating the timing and format college football takes in the coming months. And in fact, until that health and safety standard is met, the “coming months” might be well beyond Penn State’s tentative late-July start for traditional preseason camp or a September 5 season kickoff against Kent State.

Still, at present, Penn State and every other Big Ten institution is readying itself for the wide variety of timelines in which a return might be possible, all with an eye on producing some level of competition for their fall sports.

“The work that we're doing will prepare us for whenever that date is, that we then know what kind of ramp-up we need, how we might fit a football season, a volleyball season, whatever season it is, into a timeframe,” she said. “We're looking at, no matter when that is, how we get those seasons in.

“If our return fits into a timeframe that we have to do it in a non-traditional part of the year, I think we'll all look to try to make that happen.”

2 - Kirk Ciarrocca has made a big early impression

To no surprise, Penn State’s new offensive coordinator drew praise from his colleague on that side of the ball, Tyler Bowen.

Crediting Ciarrocca as drawing up the blueprint for Penn State’s “new” offense, Bowen was asked about the challenges of today’s virtual, remote learning environment for players in the absence of spring practice, which would just be wrapping its second week of action.

“I commend Kirk. Kirk has been awesome. I've enjoyed learning from him since he's been here,” Bowen said. “I think the beauty of Kirk coming in, he's a guy that's done it at a high level for a very long time. Everywhere he's been, he's been able to build a program up, on offense, that maybe was a bottom-dweller and they end up towards the top when you look at national statistics. Same thing with quarterbacks, everywhere he's been.

“So I think the beauty of him coming in is, this isn't something that we've had to piece together. It's been a very clear, concise plan since day one. So with that, I think we were able to utilize our time on campus with our players before all of this happened, and we maximized it. Now the trick is, is just continuing that maximization.”

With everything settled and formulated before spring practice with Penn State’s offense, Ciarrocca and the staff have been able to use the time since to effectively pass that information on to the players

“He's got such a clear vision of what this Penn State offense is going to be,” Bowen said. “I really feel that there wasn't a hiccup of time when he showed up on campus. I think we were able to utilize our time. And really, what you're talking about, what we didn't miss, is we got our full block before spring break. So from day one, those guys got back on campus after the bowl game, the spring break, that time was sacred. We knew we were going to have that time. We knew because of the change in offensive coordinator, how are we going to utilize that time best? And I think we were able to maximize that piece of time.

“Now, going forward, we've got that great foundation. Well, now he's been able to take that in, it's unprecedented, but utilizing technology, he's been at the forefront of that not only in the quarterback room, but with the entire offense. And I really think with what we've been allowed to do, we haven't missed a beat. I'm a glass half full guy, but I look at the way our players are engaged, I look at the way our players respond to him, not only with what we're doing schematically, but him as a motivator and the experience he brings and the knowledge that he brings offensively.”

3 - The business of Penn State athletics has not stopped

Though football and the uncertainty around it for the 2020 season was the primary topic for Barbour to tackle and discuss Thursday, she also made plain in her answers that the business of Penn State athletics has not stopped, regardless of what else is going on.

Three topics stood out in particular.

The first is that the design phase for the ongoing Lasch Building renovations continue full-speed ahead. A long-discussed element of the improvements that Franklin has been trying to implement at Penn State since his arrival, with the first floor renovations complete, the second floor, the weight facility, and Holuba Hall are still in process with their $69 million in proposed renovations.

The second, which Barbour addressed in her answer regarding the first, is that fundraising continues. She noted that, in spite of the challenges and turbulence currently at hand financially, giving has not stopped. “We'll need to see where we are from a fundraising standpoint, but obviously, we're committed to that as well as several other projects that were on the runway, getting close to getting going,” she said. “And I do know this, that our alumni and donors and fans have been terrific. Our Nittany Lion Club and our development folks continue to receive gifts and raise money through this very challenging time for everyone. So I'm very confident that although the times may be a little bit more challenging, that when the time is right that we'll have the opportunity to move forward with these things.”

And third, Barbour indicated that the contract extension for men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers had been in talks before the season’s end and are still continuing.

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TWO QUESTIONS THIS WEEK

1 - How will student-athletes cope with a long-term layoff?

Brent Pry might have provided the most insightful answer to this end, even though it’s really going to be a topic to watch as weeks turn into months away from the normal college athletics environment.

Praising Penn State and support staff for their agility in creating a conducive learning environment, with the resources necessary to do so, the strength staff for providing workouts and direction in an unconventional set of circumstances, and to the rest of the coaching staff for plowing ahead with its football instruction, Pry described all of it as “good.”

But, he didn’t deny that twinge of doubt that accompanies a coach being away from his players.

“Just, you wonder about guys between meetings and what's going on their lives and so, when you first jump back on that Zoom, my thought is always is everybody joining in?” Pry said. “I'm waiting for that last guy to hook up and see his face. You just don't want to see anybody kind of slipping away or giving into this thing, you know. And we've been really good. Everybody's meeting with their guys across the board. Guys are positive.”

Continuing, Pry expressed his hope for the weeks and likely months ahead while Penn State’s players are home and away from campus.

“We're such a process-driven organization. I hope that the way we've developed these guys in the time they've been with us, that it helps them. I believe it does during times like this,” Pry said. “They want routine, they want process, and we're giving it to them. They should have some self-responsibility and self-discipline to be able to navigate their day and the things that are going on.

“Sports are about dealing with adversity so much of the time and we talked about our preseason last year, our mantra was the adversity we faced in our preseason camp will shape our season. We talk about adversity a lot in our program and how we handle it, like a lot of folks do. But I think that this is a lesson learned for everybody, in particular for our guys working through this process.”

2 - Is progress possible?

This is the fundamental question facing Dwight Galt and his strength staff for Penn State football until players may return to campus.

Dealing with an unconventional and uneven set of circumstances, with some players owning weight training equipment and some not, and others having easy access to fields for training and some not, one of the bottom line realities to this is that the progress that defines the student-athlete experience might not be present.

Or, better said by Galt:

“The one thing about hard training is... when you train really hard, you want to see improvement, and with some of the equipment situations and the training situations we have, that ‘maintenance’ word which we freakin hate, and we don't even want to talk about is in fact a reality to a degree for our guys.”

ONE PREDICTION: The details will be resolved

Some of the conversation about Barbour’s comments regarding football is being played off as optimism on her part.

With nothing resembling a timeline for resolution to the ongoing pandemic, and no real idea what “normal” will look like on the other side of its devastation, any attempt at foreseeing the future is likely futile.

In many ways, though, that’s missing the point of her assertion

Working with a baseline assumption that this doesn’t create a “social distancing” norm through the completion of the 2020-21 fall, winter, and spring schedule, and then again into fall of 2021, the bottom line is that Penn State and its Big Ten brethren are, and will continue to be, willing to make adjustments.

It just takes an abandonment of the typical conventions of football.

Without diving into current projections, the safest bet is that the 2020 college football season will not look anything like what we would have expected as recently as a month ago.

But, in what I will maintain in my prediction here, we will see something from college football - again, assuming health and safety assurances - before the fall of 2021.

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