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For the most part, James Franklin said, he sleeps pretty well. Just not always on Saturday nights.
In particular, a few Saturday nights here in November have bothered the Penn State coach following losses to Northwestern and Michigan — games in which the Nittany Lions missed an opportunity to knock off a top-25 team.
“There’s a couple nights, Saturday nights I don’t always sleep so well,” Franklin said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “Lay there and look at the ceiling with a thousand things going through my mind, walk into my daughters’ rooms and kiss them on the head and come back into the office and stare at film for 17 hours.
“But the progress is there. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a step away and look at it.”
That’s not always easy to do as the Lions try to avoid a three-game losing skid to end the regular season when they visit national title contender Michigan State on Saturday.
Franklin said he’s very much aware that fans are upset that Penn State is dealing with many of the same problems as the program tries to rebound from the still lingering effects of NCAA sanctions.
One of the biggest issues continues to be on the offensive line, where the Lions were dominated last week against Michigan, particularly in the red zone. Much of the struggles on offense stem from the trenches as the Lions enter the home stretch ranked 111th nationally in total offense.
Franklin was asked if he thought he had the right people on his coaching staff to make things work on that side of the ball.
“I want to make sure that (media) and the fans and everybody are aware — I can identify and I can see the problems and the challenges that we have just like everybody else can,” Franklin said. “And we’re addressing them every single day. We’re addressing them every single day.”
Though he hasn’t said it recently, Franklin had said during his first season that he saw 2016 as the year the Lions could start to turn the corner back to being a contender in the Big Ten.
Franklin did acknowledge that the program was “about on schedule” as to where he thought it would be when he took over in January 2014.
What he doesn’t want to do is aim for “quick fixes” such as filling recruiting classes halfway up with junior college players, saying that suck a tactic isn’t best for the program in the long term.
“There is progress being made,” Franklin said. “Is it to the degree that everybody wants it to be, including myself? No. No it’s not. Is it the pace that everybody wants it to be? No it’s not. But there is progress being made.
“Our O-line has improved from the beginning of the year. Our O-line has improved from last year. So I would make the argument that we have. But those (issues) aren’t going to be solved overnight.”
Cook recovering
As for the Spartans, the question of the week will continue to be the health of star quarterback Connor Cook, who has missed the last six quarters because of an injury to his throwing shoulder.
Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said Tuesday that he expects it to be a game-time decision on whether Cook will be able to play or if he’ll again split reps between backups Tyler O’Connor and Damion Terry, who knocked off Ohio State last week.
Honors for Nassib
Senior defensive end Carl Nassib remains the national leader in sacks, tackles for loss and forced fumbles despite missing all but two plays last week against Michigan because of an upper-body injury.
And now he’s a finalist for two more awards, including his second national defensive player of the year honor, the Bednarik Award, to go with his Nagurski Trophy nomination.
Temple linebacker Tyler Matakevich and Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland are the other finalists for both the Bednarik and the Nagurski.
Nassib is also a finalist for the Lombardi Award (top lineman or linebacker) and now, announced Tuesday, a finalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, given to the nation’s top former walk-on. Former Penn State and West Scranton quarterback Matt McGloin won the award in 2012.
