Franklin lays out Penn State's bye week plans

Published Nov. 10, 2015 4:15 p.m. ET

Marcus Hartman

Penn State football was in action in each of the first 10 weeks of the season, but the Nittany Lions finally get their bye the second Saturday in November.

Of course while the players might get some time off, the job of a coach is never quite finished in this day and age of college football.

Coach James Franklin explained on the Big Ten coaches teleconference on Tuesday how the week is expected to go for him, his players and his staff.

"Everybody finds out it’s a bye week, so there’s 35 different meetings on our schedule and on my schedule because people see it as a week off," he said. "I just got back from a meeting across campus about the master plan with athletics. You’d think it would be a slower week but in some ways it may busier."

The Nittany Lions practiced on Sunday and planned to do so again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with Franklin expecting young players to get more looks than usual during that period of time.

"We’re able to hold out some of the guys who have had nagging injuries all year long that we haven’t really been able to get over," he said. "Thursday, we’re going to have a practice for just the non-travel guys, the guys that haven’t played, most of the redshirt guys."

Coaches will recruit over the weekend while also hoping to get a little downtime before reporting back to work on Sunday.

"Sunday will be a little different," Franklin said. "Instead of splitting time between the previous game and the upcoming game, you’re able to spend all of your time on the upcoming game as well as this week we’re obviously spending time on getting ready for Michigan.

"We’re taking an hour or two a day this week and watching some recruiting film as offensive and defensive staffs that we wouldn’t normally do on a normal week. It’s a combination of all those things we’re trying to accomplish."