STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WHTM) - Coming home after back-to-back losses, it would be easy to say the mood around Penn State football was a somber one. Instead, it's a team with renewed focus on its goals, which it feels are still all in front of them.
"It starts with all of us looking in the mirror and making the adjustments we can make and owning it and then moving forward in a positive direction, and, you know, reminding the players, you know, that we're closer than maybe it feels right now and that it's being reported, right?" said Penn State football head coach James Franklin.
"It's never as bad as you think," Franklin added. "It's never as good as you think, although it feels bad right now to everybody. I get it, and maybe that never as bad or as good as it seems is the lesson."
After so much preseason hype and national championship talk, the path forward will not be easy for the Nittany Lions.
"I would just say the biggest thing has been just focusing on getting better every single day, you know, going back to the basics and cleaning up our game and focusing on going one another this week, for sure," said redshirt sophomore tight end Andrew Rappleyea on Wednesday.
As the Nittany Lions shift their focus toward Northwestern, the team is all about keeping each other accountable.
"Trust me, we feel the pain," said Franklin. "Trust me, we feel it internally. And as much as I'd like to limit the external that they feel that too. So it's all of it.?
"What I actually had to start doing is, you know, I ended up going to the defensive staff meetings at the practice and hearing coach (Jim) Knowles' critique," said junior safety Mac King. "(It) helped me understand what he wants. So, once I started going to all of these staff meetings and seeing what he wants, it made everything easier for me, whether it is looking in the mirror or taking extra film sessions with assistant coaches, everyone doing their part to make sure this team plays with confidence."
Saturday's return to West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium will be both the annual Homecoming Game and the Stripe Out.
