3-2-1: The beat goes on

1 - Don't bury the lede

So I won't.

First thing's first, and Penn State picked up another verbal commitment Friday at noon to build on its budding, and impressive, Class of 2022 with the pledge of offensive tackle Drew Shelton.

The Downingtown, Pa., product is a four-star who added to Penn State's haul of five total Class of 2022 members to commit in the past six weeks, lifting the Nittany Lions to No. 3 nationally in the Rivals team rankings for the class. He's also a Rivals250 member, checking in at No. 110 in the Class of 2022 rankings and is the 14th-rated offensive tackle in the class, and is third overall in Pennsylvania.

BWI recruiting analyst Ryan Snyder sheds more light on the Shelton commitment and what it means for the Nittany Lions moving forward.

2 - The fight continues

For as much uncertainty as still remains regarding the possibility of football before the 2020 calendar flips to 2021, a topic ignited on a national scale this week when President Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter detailing a conversation he'd had with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, one thing remains clear.

Penn State's stakeholders are working to make it a reality.

Joining Steve Jones on the Penn State Coaches Show Thursday evening, both athletic director Sandy Barbour and head coach James Franklin expressed their optimism that the sport could indeed be played safely, especially after the Nittany Lions' success in averting COVID-19 infections during their official team activities this summer.

“We had shown that we had a model here that was working, so that's why when it was shut down it was difficult because I think we had proved that we could make this thing work,” Franklin said. “And it's not easy, and it's going to be difficult, but there's a way for us to do this. And we've got a bunch of really smart people on these campuses. We've got a bunch of really creative people as well. And at this level, we're fortunate to have resources as well.”

Further, Barbour explained how the ever-evolving and ever-improving variable of testing could and likely will come into play in how the Big Ten is able to proceed. Named co-chair of the Big Ten’s Return to Competition Task Force through the process, Barbour laid out the hurdles that still remain to getting competition up and running, and the progress the group has made toward alleviating those issues.

“We’ve really been looking at all kinds of things. The myocarditis issue, the long-term health effects, and how to maybe develop protocols that help the presidents and chancellors feel like (they're) taking some uncertainty out of it and feel like that our protocols help protect students to a high degree,” she said. “And then the other thing, and we've known this all along, the rate of change. The rate of innovation on a daily basis relative to testing is enormous. The decision was made on August 11, and in those intervening 19, 20, 21 days, there's been a huge amount of advancement in testing that has come to light in the public.

“The PAC-12 announced a partnership (Thursday) with a company with a new test. We've been a little bit quieter about it, but there are some things that we're pursuing from a testing standpoint that I believe are real game-changers in terms of our ability to ensure what we call a clean field, whether it be practice, or whether it be competition for all of our student-athletes within the Big Ten conference.”

Blue White Illustrated remains under the impression, in speaking with sources, that November is likely the earliest start date for the conference, though Franklin noted Thursday evening his belief that conference programs could be ready to play in as few as four to six weeks.

3 - It was working

Franklin said as much, repeatedly, in his press conference with reporters in the wake of the Big Ten's decision to postpone all fall sports to the spring in mid-August.

But he also came back and detailed further exactly what steps were being taken in the program to ensure health and safety in a manner that he expressed as "going over and beyond," given the reality that much of the rest of college football has relaxed some of its precautionary measures by conducting full team practices.

"We're not doing that," he said, lamenting the lack of efficiency of the process while finding silver linings to it. "Our meetings are all on zoom. Our practices are split so the players go through a practice, we're able to reduce the size of the people in the locker rooms for that and for showers and things like that. Then the next group comes out and we do another practice with them, so the coaches can be on the field for for a long period of time.

'But it's like anything else, it just depends on the lens that you view the situation through because there's been some benefits. They're working in smaller groups, you're able to give guys more individual attention, you're able to give guys more reps. So there's some positives. I've done it this way in the past as well, but it was by choice and now we're doing it out of necessity. But I think there will come a time to where we'll be able to get back to practicing as a full team. From an organizational perspective it's been really interesting."

Also noting how well the transitions have gone for offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, wideouts assistant coach Taylor Stubblefield, offensive line coach Phil Trautwein, and new defensive line assistant John Scott, Franklin praised the progress that has taken place in the program in spite of the Big Ten's ruling.

Having implemented "skelly" periods at practices, while still not conducting full contact per the NCAA's 12-hour guidelines and Big Ten prohibitions, Franklin said the development was an important one to maintaining that progression.

"The good thing is, since the NCAA came back to us last week and said that we could go Skelly period," Franklin said. "The Big Ten got approval to do that so that's been really good because you're able to go full speed Skelly where you don't have as many bodies around each other, and can still get really good work done.

"You just got to envision it this way. It's not a walkthrough. They're down in their football position. They're taking the same footwork. There is game like pad level and hat placement. Whether it's an offensive lineman or whether it's a tight end or whether it's the defense, getting in a great stance. If you're approaching it the right way and taking each rep in that walkthrough like it's fourth down in the Super Bowl, then you're going to get better, and you're going to get better, and you're going to reduce the chance of injuries, and you're going to reduce some of the contact and the wear and tear. So, there's a lot of benefits."

1 - What's up, Labor Day?

In a question and answer session with the State College Area School District board of directors on Monday, there were some worthy insights from Penn State team physician, Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, to keep in mind.

The first, and most important, is that Penn State Athletics had not seen a single coronavirus infection due to any of its sports activities.

"After that period of time we tested the entire group and we had zero positives, which meant that our bubble was working and that we really did a great job from the standpoint of athletic training and coaching to make sure that everything was as clean as possible," he told the board. "The strength and conditioning coaches did a great job of isolating, and have people workout in cohorts. We really kept people in small groups when it came to conditioning, whether it's aerobic conditioning or weight training, to make sure there was no cross contamination. We didn't have people live in one house and workout with another group, so we really tried to make it as as carefully protected as possible."

In that vein, the three-day weekend takes on a different contextual importance.

As Sebastianelli detailed, the infections that did occur were all traced to the activities outside the realm of the specific sports, particularly in the social arena.

"I have to give kudos to the coaching staff, to Coach Franklin, for all the coaches that were out there. Coach Rose with women's volleyball and the other coaches that participated, they really followed through," Sebastianelli said. "Where we had our breakthroughs, where our bubble was busted, was when the athletes were off (intercollegiate athletics) time. They went around to a pool party. They went around to a social gathering. Those kind of things. And that's where your bubble concept just breaks."

In what might be one of the dumbest ironies and unintended consequences of the Big Ten's decision to postpone football and its other fall sports, the major area of concern is not in fact the sports activities themselves, but rather the time away from them which, drumroll please, has been expanded due to the NCAA's decision to limit official team activities to just 12 hours a week.

"It should be 20. Every sport is 20 hours, and when the Big Ten made this decision, we were expecting 20 hours and then we got the information back that we're going to be at 12 which makes no sense when every other sport is at 20," Franklin said. "And to be honest with you, the last thing you want right now is a lot of free time because what everybody is seeing is people aren't having issues with their sport or their activity. It's the behaviors when they're away, trying to modify the behaviors when they're not with you. That's when everybody's at most risk."

*Face palm emoji*

2 - Is this happening, or no?

It might be. Maybe it isn't though. Or, maybe it is.

At this point, who knows?

To be clear, I don't. But a few things have become plain if you survey the comments of Barbour, Sebastianelli, and others this week.

And the biggest one, in my mind, is that reliable, accurate testing is the door to alleviating the concerns of the Big Ten's chancellors and presidents. Take a look at this quote from Sebastianelli and keep Barbour's quote about testing from the top in mind when you read it.

"What we decided that was absolutely necessary was to have a robust testing platform," Sebastianelli said. "And the reason why we want that robust testing platform is we want to be able to ensure that Competitor A against Competitor B have both been tested and both are recognized as being COVID negative. Obviously, there's still going to be some potential statistically... that there will be some percentage that the test will miss. But with that said, you really are putting people in the best position to be able to compete, and to retain all the good benefits of athletics."

At one point this summer, Sebastianelli reported to the school board a number that helps explain the conference's misgivings about that testing availability.

"Turnaround time was absolutely horrible. It was just horrible," he said. "Sometimes it was 18, 19 days before you had a result back. By then, your contact tracing, and the effect of the test result really has no role whatsoever in what's happening."

And now?

"At this point in time for athletics, we're testing roughly 800 to 900 people a week and we are using the saliva test from Vault (Health) as our main platform. And we use this spill over with Quest (Diagnostics) and with CSI (Laboratories) as we need to, to try to keep those numbers as robust as possible," he said. "So its turnaround time has gotten from 18 to 20 days now down to about 48 hours or less. So we're lucky right now, but if we get a surge, that'll change. It's the surges that really put the pressure on this and, that's what happens when it really slowed down. Pittsburgh became a little bit of a hotbed and all of our stuff went to Pittsburgh to get tested, and since most of our testing was asymptomatic, we were put in a different bin. And that just did not get those screening surveillance tests back as quickly as we thought."

Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing.

ONE PREDICTION: Gone 'til November

I want the Big Ten, and specifically Penn State, to play football as soon as possible.

The momentum on this seems to change on a daily basis, but what was once a January season being planned by the Big Ten turned into November and, this week, an expectation for a season to begin as soon as October.

The feedback I have received from trusted sources, plural, is that November is the target month gaining momentum this week.

Will the rigorous, accurate, fast point-of-care testing be in place by then? Will anything more be known about the cardiac concerns of the league doctors (peer-reviewed, that is)? Will the Big Ten presidents and chancellors find an equilibrium from which they can live, even uncomfortably?

Honestly, exhaustedly, impatiently, I hope so.

And today, I'm going to go so far as to predict as much. Meet me here next week to see how much that changes.

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