Over the last several months, Penn State football coach James Franklin has expressed his displeasure about playing Friday night at Illinois and playing regular season games on any day but Saturday.
This week, though, Franklin has refrained from airing his grievances about the 10th-ranked Nittany Lions’ Big Ten opener Friday night at 9 (TV-FS1; WEEU-AM/830).
“We’re not talking about this week any other way than this is game week,” he said Tuesday. “I do not like talking about it any different than that because I think it has a psychological effect. And we won’t do that.”
Penn State hasn’t played a regular season game on a Friday since 1982, when the Lions beat Pittsburgh 19-10 on the day after Thanksgiving before winning their first national championship.
They haven’t had less than a week between games since defeating Miami (Fla.) 17-8 at the Orange Bowl on a Friday night in 1967, Joe Paterno’s second season as head coach.
“We’ve got the same amount of days to get ready that Illinois does,” Franklin said. “I kind of voiced some of my thoughts before this week started. But now that it’s this week, this is game week for us.”
Penn State (3-0) routed Kent State 63-10 Saturday at Beaver Stadium. The same day, Illinois (2-1) lost to South Florida 25-19 at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The Lions normally take Mondays off, but they practiced two days ago and will travel to Champaign Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s much of an adjustment,” senior safety Nick Scott said. “It’s a regular game week for us. We’re approaching it that way. Nothing to my knowledge has changed for us. It’s just moved up a day.”
Stevens, Reid update: Penn State coach James Franklin strongly hinted that backup quarterback Tommy Stevens will make his season debut at Illinois.
Stevens suffered a foot injury early in preseason camp and has not played. He was in uniform the last two games and participated fully in pregame drills before the win over Kent State.
“If we needed Tommy last week, we could have played him,” Franklin said. “We were probably just being a little more cautious than we probably need to be.
“We expect to have all three of those guys (quarterbacks Trace McSorley, Sean Clifford and Stevens) available for the game this week that happens to be on Friday.”
Franklin also made it sound like cornerback John Reid, who sustained a shoulder injury in the opener, will play against Illinois. He has not played since the fourth quarter of the overtime win over Appalachian State.
“Yeah,” he said. “We expect John back.”
Lutz recognized: Penn State sophomore wide receiver Isaac Lutz, a former Berks Catholic standout, was recognized by the coaching staff as a special teams player of the week.
The 5-11, 186-pound Lutz made two tackles on kick coverage against Kent State and had a key block on KJ Hamler’s 33-yard punt return. He shared the award with Hamler, who also had a 52-yard kickoff return.
The coaches named quarterback Trace McSorley as the offensive player of the week and end Shareef Miller as the defensive player of the week.
Upon further review: Penn State center Michal Menet, the former Exeter standout, was flagged for a holding penalty on the second play of the win over Kent State.
The call wiped out Trace McSorley’s 56-yard touchdown pass to KJ Hamler, but coach James Franklin said he feels the officials made a mistake after reviewing film.
“The one holding penalty was not a holding penalty,” Franklin said. “It looked like it. Menet got called for it. If you watch the play, Menet got locked up on the guy (nose tackle Kalil Morris), and the guard comes over and knocks the nose over.
“If you just see the end of the play, you think Menet pulled him down. But what really happened is the guard just came in and cleaned him up. In my opinion that was not a penalty.”
Contact Rich Scarcella: 610-371-5070 or rscarcella@readingeagle.com.
