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It won’t be “Hard Knocks.” Not exactly. But for one week of the 2019 season, HBO will be giving a closer look inside Penn State football.

The premium channel announced Wednesday that the Nittany Lions will be one of four teams featured on an episode of its newest sports series, “24/7 College Football.”

HBO cameras will follow Penn State players and coaches throughout the week leading up to the Oct. 5 Homecoming game against Purdue at Beaver Stadium. The episode will debut the following Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Oct. 9 on the network, where it will also be available to stream on demand for subscribers.

It will be the second of four hour-long episodes in the series, which begins on Oct. 2 with Florida following the Gators’ game against FCS Towson on Sept. 28.

After Penn State will be a look at Arizona State (Oct. 16) after the Sun Devils’ Oct. 12 game against Washington State. HBO will then pack up from Tempe and join Washington State for the Cougars’ next game against Colorado on Oct. 19, with that episode airing Oct. 23.

HBO Sports is perhaps best known for its long-running “Hard Knocks” series, which follows one NFL team each summer through training camp for several episodes, providing some of the most in-depth looks into the inner workings of a pro team.

The channel’s “24/7” series has done similiar documentary-style shows in the run-up to other big events in boxing, hockey, golf and NASCAR.

News of the project first leaked out last month when a report out of Arizona said that Arizona State, Penn State, Washington State and Alabama were the four schools in line to be showcased. Coaches from all four schools, including the Lions’ James Franklin, said at the time that discussions were still being held and nothing was being finalized.

The Crimson Tide were ultimately replaced by the Gators in the lineup when plans were made official this week.

“It’s been a discussion, really, for the last three years,” Franklin said in a livestreamed talk with reporters in State College after Wednesday’s practice. “After talking to people from other programs that did it, they felt like it was a positive.

“And for us, with the ‘Unrivaled’ (TV show) we do, the cameras are already around all the time. So between the coaches and the leadership council, we didn’t really feel like it would be a whole lot different than what we already do.”

Franklin wouldn’t divulge details from those other programs he talked to, but said in general the benefits are as expected.

“It’s an opportunity to get our program out there on a national scale and allow people to maybe see behind the curtain a little bit,” Franklin said.

Franklin figures to be featured prominently along with his peers Dan Mullen, Herm Edwards and Mike Leach.

Like HBO Sports’ other productions, the show will be narrated by Liev Schreiber.

College football teams have increasingly become the subjects of similar projects, with the largest being Amazon Prime’s “All or Nothing: The Michigan Wolverines” which followed Jim Harbaugh’s squad through the 2017 season.

Bo Mattingly, the executive producer of “24/7 College Football,” also produced shows for ESPN on training camp with Alabama and Nick Saban as well as a current web series on Les Miles taking over at Kansas.

“Viewers will feel the tremendous electricity of some of the best atmospheres in the country, and see the meticulous preparation and challenges facing these programs in the build-up to gameday and during the game action,” HBO Sports head Rick Bernstein said through the network.

James Franklin and the Nittany Lions will be featured in an hour-long HBO special at 10 p.m. on Oct. 9, chronicling the week of Penn State’s game vs. Purdue.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_AP19258091115514.jpg.optimal.jpgJames Franklin and the Nittany Lions will be featured in an hour-long HBO special at 10 p.m. on Oct. 9, chronicling the week of Penn State’s game vs. Purdue. Barry Reeger | AP photo

By Derek Levarse

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