Forget the pageantry: Penn State’s Fiesta Bowl focus is trained solely on defeating Boise State
The College Football Playoff quarterfinals are the only thing on James Franklin's priority list this week.
Penn State has been here many times before … in the Fiesta Bowl, that is.
The Nittany Lions have won seven Fiesta Bowl games, the most of any school, and are looking to make it eight when they take on Boise State on New Year’s Eve (7:30 p.m., ESPN) in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The winner of the game in Glendale, Ariz., will face the winner of Georgia-Notre Dame (Sugar Bowl) in the semifinals.
The players for Penn State (12-2) will be off until Christmas evening, getting time to go home and spend part of the holidays with their families. Coach James Franklin and his staff are spending a bit more time in the facility.
Keeping focus
Franklin hinted at the history of the Fiesta Bowl and the New Year’s Six bowls as a whole Saturday, giving a dramatic pause when mentioning that Penn State has been to a lot of them. For many coaches, it’s a perfect opportunity to get motivated for what’s to come.
But for Franklin? It doesn’t matter.
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“I don’t necessarily feel like the time is worth taking it away from preparing for this specific opponent that we have this year, which is Boise,” Franklin said.
Teams often highlight the bowl experience with the amenities each city has to offer. Franklin acknowledges Phoenix is a “phenomenal town,” but he is intent to stay focused on Boise State (12-1).
“This is a business trip for us,” Franklin said. “It’s not like we’ll be out shopping or going to restaurants. We’ll enjoy the weather. I’ll tell you that, from what I understand, it’s about 70 degrees. So I think today in State College, it’s about 72 degrees,” he joked.
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Coaching philosophy
Franklin has drawn on his three decades of coaching to help him stay focused on the game itself.
“The older you get, you try to keep the main thing, the main thing, and at the end of the day it boils down to our players having a tremendous experience while they’re here at Penn State,” Franklin said. “You kind of get rid of all those other things like stats and, you know, again, yards and stats and points and things like that.”
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Over the years, Franklin has gotten more aggressive with decisions, like the Nittany Lions’ fake punt against Minnesota and going for it on fourth-and-1 from Penn State’s 20 against SMU.
“I think some of the calls that we have made going forward, on fourth down, those types of things, we want to be as aggressive as we possibly can,” Franklin said. “We don’t want to have any regrets. And playing to win, I think, is a mentality that everybody has to embrace.”