Rose Bowl Game Conference Call – Head Coach James Franklin

Q: Curious with the Olu [Fashanu] news that he’s coming back, if you’re able to give any clarity on his status as you get into postseason preparation and what his return might mean for Drew Shelton and his role on the offensive line moving forward?
A: We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. Obviously, medical will play the biggest factor in all these things. But we’ll see how it plays out.
 
Obviously, Olu deciding, him and his family deciding to come back was something as a program that we’re really excited about. But also making sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to support Olu and all his academic plans and goals he has for himself, as well as playing even better next year and getting drafted as high as possible.
 
So for me to sit here and say all those things aren’t on my mind and something that I want to make sure we do a good job of, would not be accurate.
 
Obviously, we’re excited. I’ve got a great relationship with Olu and his family and it was exciting news. But I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to support Olu as well. We’ll see how this bowl game plays out, you know, with his timeline.
 
Q: Wanted to ask about how you balance these next three-plus weeks with getting ready for this bowl, recruiting, the portal, all those types of things? Where are you at now? What do you know about the practice schedule so far for this bowl game?
A: Yeah, I’m sitting in an airport in the middle of Kansas, hoping this press conference will go smoothly and I’m gonna jump on a plane and head to my next destination.
 
But yeah, we have it all mapped out. So our players and staff have already received our practice schedule, kind of went over what we thought it would be, a preliminary schedule with the staff a few days ago, but everybody got our schedule. When there’s going to be time off, how we’re going to handle finals week, when we’ll be traveling, when we’ll be practicing. All those things are mapped out for us, which is nice. Kevin Threlkel does a great job for us in those areas.
 
But you know, right now, I think balance is a good word. We’re trying to split our time between finishing up this traditional recruiting class. Obviously, have an awareness of what’s going on in the transfer portal, which is about to hit hot and heavy here pretty soon. Making sure that we met with…