Penn State players bury film of Temple game, look ahead
Penn State players wanted to move forward after their disappointing 27-10 season-opening loss to Temple. So after they watched the game film, they went out on their practice field and buried it.
The Penn State players reported to the Lasch Football Building for their regular day-after-the-game routine. They watched film of their dismal 27-10 loss to Temple, went to the field to work on correcting the mistakes they made, and then did something quite out of the ordinary.
They buried the game film on one of the Lasch practice fields.
"Coming off a very tough loss, one thing that the captains did, we brought everybody after the coaches got off the field and we buried the tape," senior safety Jordan Lucas said Tuesday. "We took a shovel on the practice field right where we walk out and buried it.
"I think that's something we needed to do to get moving forward, give us that positive energy back, have a little fun with it."
Lucas said quarterback Christian Hackenberg, one of his fellow captains, brought the matter to his attention and everyone was on board with it.
"We just wanted the guys to know, 'Hey, look, we're not going to dwell on the past. We're going to bury this,'" he said. "It's not the end of our season. It's the first game of the season. We have 12 more opportunities."
Penn State coach James Franklin, who at his regular Tuesday news conference discussed the litany of errors made by players and coaches during their embarrassing afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, supported the move.
"The players thought that was the right thing for them to do and they did it," Franklin said on a conference call with Big Ten coaches.
"We all have different ways of dealing with things and they thought that was a good way to do it, actually physically burying the game and moving on to the next one. . . . So I'm in support of doing whatever they need to do to feel great and move on."
Even trying to bury the Temple game doesn't help the Nittany Lions in preparing for Saturday's Beaver Stadium home opener against Buffalo.
Given the 10-sack debacle against the Owls, Franklin said his staff is reviewing the offensive line personnel to get the best five on the field, and mentioned there might be some "moving parts."
That could mean the addition of backup center Wendy Laurent and the subtraction of junior college transfer Paris Palmer at left tackle. The coach said Palmer "played like a guy starting his first game."
Laurent likely would come in at center, moving regular starter Angelo Mangiro to tackle, where he played for two games last season.
"Obviously we spent a lot of time in the offseason trying to figure out who our best five were going to be," Franklin said. "We had some question marks. We felt like we would play better than we did on Saturday, but we're going to have to figure that out throughout the week."
Another personnel shuffle could come at linebacker. The Nittany Lions must replace Nyeem Wartman-White, who suffered a season-ending injury, apparently to his left knee, in his first start at middle linebacker.
Franklin may stick with junior Gary Wooten, Wartman-White's backup, or move sophomore outside backer Jason Cabinda. Freshmen Jake Cooper (Archbishop Wood) and Manny Bowen also could get a look after having their redshirts burned because of injuries to Wartman-White and Brandon Bell.
It will be a challenging week for Franklin, who has been criticized on social media by Penn State fans and former players since Saturday.
"The fans are going to be passionate, the former players are going to be passionate," he said. "They take a lot of pride in this place, and they should. We have been through a lot in our last three years. We need to continue to work through these things. The only way to get those things done is to stay positive, to stay together, and work through it."
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